China's Tesla rival Unitree's H1 wins humanoid race at Beijing showcase

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Unitree Robotics brought the spotlight-grabbing machines at Beijing’s set piece robots competition on Friday, burnishing its reputation as a national champion for China’s ambitions in developing AI and humanoids.

 

The Hangzhou-based company’s H1 robot won gold in a 1,500-meter humanoid race with a listed time of 6 minutes and 35 seconds, beating the average mile time on Strava by close to four minutes. Another Unitree machine also made it to the podium in a race that highlighted day one of the World Humanoid Robot Games. 

The three-day event hosted in the Chinese capital is the latest showcase for the nation’s challengers to Tesla Inc. and other US companies developing products in the emerging field of advanced robotics. While Tesla’s Optimus humanoid is still largely just a promise in development, Unitree’s alternatives showed off various athletic feats, adding to Chinese steps forward that included a half-marathon race in April. 

 

Mishaps continue to pervade these nascent ventures, as several robot racers tripped on the tracks and one even lost an arm. In soccer games played nearby, skills like passing and tackling were nowhere to be found, with the game played more like rugby where one robot tries to brute-force the ball into the other team’s net. Many of the robots at the show also still have human operators controlling them via joysticks. 

In a boxing ring set up at the center of the National Speed Skating Oval arena, contestants from local universities pit Unitree’s G1 models against each other. The robots, distinguishable by colored headbands and gloves, wowed the audience with their kicks and swings.

 

Unitree’s prominence has grown rapidly after Chief Executive Officer Wang Xingxing joined a group of tech executives including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s billionaire co-founder Jack Ma in a high-profile meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this year, an event designed to highlight Beijing’s support for private tech enterprise. 

  Hundreds more robots also joined the event on Friday. Beyond the main stage, there were demonstrations like a machine arm playing table tennis and robots on wheels shooting hoops. Two-legged humanoid competitors will compete for 26 gold medals in competitions from track and field races to soccer and kickboxing. 

Nvidia Corp. boss Jensen Huang has said that robotics has the potential to grow into a multitrillion-dollar industry, while Elon Musk also sees Tesla’s Optimus having the potential to generate $10 trillion in revenue. China, meanwhile, is aggressively pushing ahead in its effort to match or surpass US ventures.

 

Unitree’s Wang said earlier this month that “it feels like we are at a point of one to three years before ChatGPT emerged.” When the artificial intelligence required to make robots truly humanlike is ready, Beijing wants to be at the forefront and ready to capture the opportunity.