This Chinese humanoid robot just shattered the world record for a half marathon, finishing in 50 min 26 sec. This video shows its crash just meters before the finish line where it had to be picked up by a team of humans. The robot is from Honor, the smartphone... maker and Huawei spin-off. This robot was teleoperated while others were autonomous. It seems like all the robots had battery swaps along the way.show more

So. Didn’t finish race, so no record shattered. Remote controlled, so not a robot. Needed battery swapping along the way. Riiiiight.

So it didn’t break the record. If a human falls and passes out while running and is helped back up and aided to the finish line, the time does not count. The same goes for machines.

"Shattered the world record for a half marathon" *Looks inside* Robot was DNF because it crashed and had to be carried over the line by humans

Robots are already powerful enough. When they fall to the ground, they can imitate humans and start to twitch.🤣🤣🤣

No it didn't.

You can watch the entire 2026 Beijing Humanoid Robot Half Marathon here. They had separate tracks for robot vs. human runners.

Teleoperated? Battery swaps? Humans carrying it? 💀 This isn't innovation, it's just an expensive 50-minute photo-op. Don't fall for the hype

This is the actual winning robot, fully autonomous:

To clarify, the robot in the first post is the one that finished fastest on raw time. But it was teleoperated and so its official time gets a 1.2x penalty. A nearly identical fully autonomous robot made by the same Honor team (they had multiple robots in the race) was crowned the official winner. Its raw time was slower at 50 min 26 sec, but it didn’t get the teleop penalty. This was the one that officially beat the human world record.

There is absolutely nothing more dystopian than a running robot! What if it is programmed to kill humans?

This rappresents exactly what o think about this humanoid obsession… a wheeled robot would have done the same half marathon in 25 min or less with 80% less energy… engineers usually know that but engineering is not driving this….

Geez Louise

How should a machine having a remote controller be called a “robot”?

ALL these robots are controlled by humans! They are NOT autonomous!

In its defence, most professional marathon runners take on carbs and liquids during a marathon too.

Still impressive, but “world record” needs an asterisk the size of a billboard 😭 Teleoperated, battery swaps, human pickup at the end… cool tech demo for sure, but not exactly robot domination yet.

Don't you mean that the marathon smashed the robot?

ils ont rien d'autres a fiche que de faire courire des robots les chinois ?

Surely it’s not concerning that last year it took 2 hours and 40 minutes and this year they are faster than people. Soon.

Very soon, these fast robots will be recruited and trained to handle the toughest menial jobs in firefighting, garbage collection, high-voltage cable de-icing, explosives, construction, and in the police and armed forces. 😂

Honestly, there isn't much point to it; even Unitree Robotics struggles to make a profit with these kinds of robots right now.

What if we put that bad boy on wheels…gave it a bigger engine? Maybe some seats? Would go way faster.

China keeps showing exactly where its priorities lies engineering humanoid robots to aid humanitarian activities and push the boundaries of what’s possible for humanity. Meanwhile the US on the other hand keeps pouring its resources into sponsoring endless wars, CIA operations, and human slaughters abroad, I didn't want to say this but it's so clear now, one nation builds the future while the other buries it, the contrast is no longer subtle.

Am I the only one who thinks this is kind of pointless show-boating? Symbolic of the negative side of Chinese culture that showing off is better than substance.

What’s the point or purpose of this demonstration? Heck why should this matter. Most boring robot ever. Any intelligence to this robot or just to show sites? Quit funding bots like this. A waste of everything.

The stretchers 😂😂

Invalid if it can’t pick itself up and finish on one energy charge

The only reason it could not run faster was because the remote controller could not keep up😭😂

My car can also do this, usually without crashing

That is not the footage of the one that won the race. The one that won the race had a white dish behind its head

Impressed by the battery power and cooling. Getting a robot to run is basic. Figuring out how to do so at extreme effeciency and also the chemistry of powering it is incredible. Hats off to all these teams.

It fell down and couldn’t get up. It’s not impressive at all

Crashing meters from the finish is the most honest robotics stress test possible.

They also have a robot cheerleader!

And at least a robot won't stop to shit in the middle of the street 👍