When I was an engine engineer in Detroit I remember watching car bodies being powder coated. This was so long ago (1965) that humans rather than robots were spraying the paint. But, the key thing for car companies was that there was very little overspray with electrostatic guns. Almost all the paint ended up on the car panels. For the home shop, getting an even coat is perhaps the electrostatic guns only important use for me - don't care about the overspray that much.
Car companies made paint jobs thinner by a couple of thousandths and thinned up the sheet metal every year for many years to save weight and thereby increase fuel efficiency.