It’s Official: No Man Can Outrun Our Robot Overlords — Gizmodo

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It’s Official: No Man Can Outrun Our Robot Overlords — Gizmodo | AIPROPX

China’s booming humanoid robot industry may have just produced a robot faster than the fastest human.

Unitree unveiled a new humanoid robot on Monday that the company says can run faster and jump higher than a person.

In a video posted to social media, the robot, which Unitree is calling “Superman,” is shown making a two-meter standing jump and reaching a top speed of 12.66 meters per second (roughly 28.3 miles per hour).

That would put Superman’s top speed slightly above Usain Bolt’s peak speed of 12.2 meters per second during his record-breaking 100-meter sprint in 2009.

“Unitree New Robot Preview: ‘Superman’ Breaking the Limits of Humanity,” the company wrote in a post accompanying the video X.

Unitree said it developed the robot in just over three months and that it remains a work in progress with further improvements expected in the coming months.

The Superman reveal appears to be aimed in part at generating buzz for Unitree as it makes its stock market debut.

The company is set to begin trading on Shanghai’s STAR Market on Wednesday after raising 6.1 billion yuan ($904 million), in an initial public offering last week. Unitree will become the first general-purpose robotics company to be listed on mainland China’s stock market.

The timing also puts Unitree in the spotlight ahead of two major robotics events in Beijing.

First, the 2026 World Robot Conference taking place August 19 through August 23, that brings robotics researchers and industry leaders from around the world together to discuss the latest developments in the field.

And just a few days later, the second World Humanoid Robot Games will run from August 22 through August 26.

Unitree dominated at last year’s inaugural games, winning four gold medals in the 400-meter dash, 1,500-meter race, 100-meter hurdles and 4×100-meter relay.

During last year’s games, one of Unitree’s robots reached a top speed of 4.78 meters per second, showing just how quickly the company’s machines are improving.

All of this is happening as China is pouring tons of money and support into robotics.

The country announced last year a state-backed venture capital fund aimed at attracting 1 trillion yuan ($148 billion) in public and private investment for AI, robotics, and other high-tech startups over the next 20 years.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is still lacking a national robotics strategy that companies, like Tesla and Boston Dynamics have urged lawmakers to develop in order to better compete with China.

The U.S. government has also increasingly treated Chinese robots as a national security concern. Just last month, the FCC moved to ban imports of foreign-made humanoid and other advanced robots over cybersecurity and supply chain risks.