The battle is on as China is quick on Tesla’s tails in the race to build battery-powered robot humanoids which could replace human workers building electric vehicles in the future.
It was at the World Robot Conference in Beijing this week where over two dozen Chinese companies presented their robots which have been specifically designed to work in factories, warehouses, and on the assembly lines.
Other companies at the event showcased precision parts that will be needed to build the robots.
This advancement comes after Elon Musk posted on X about Tesla’s humanoid robot journey in July: “Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026.”
Musk introduced the automaker’s first robot Optimus in 2021. The team has been working on the design and its abilities over the last few years, with the Tesla CEO regularly updating followers on X.
On January 15, he shared a video of Optimus folding a shirt but he added the clarification that the robot “cannot yet do this autonomously, but certainly will be able to do this fully autonomously and in an arbitrary environment…”
Optimus folds a shirt pic.twitter.com/3F5o3jVLq1
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2024
Just a month later, on February 24, he shared a clip of Optimus strolling around the lab.
While that sounds creepy enough, the humanoids created by Chinese companies are even further along.
The first rival is a startup named AGIBOT which has recently unveiled a family of five advanced humanoid robots. The tagline on the website reads ‘Create unlimited productivity via intelligence machines.’
The first generational ‘general embodied intelligent robot’ by AGIBOT measures 175cm, 55kg, with a walking speed of 7 km/h.
Unitree has recently shown its updated G1 humanoid robot too which is expected to be nearing ‘mass production.’ It’s thought to be soon available at a price tag of $16,000.
Another company named Astribot has revealed Astribot S1 which is a two-wheel robot that has been created to carry out human tasks.
While several have already come forward to share their designs and products, more could be expected out of China as it aims to beat Tesla in the race for bringing humanoid robots to the workforce.
Image credit: Elon Musk’s X video
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