China’s robot half-marathon sets record with amusing moments

Once again, China hosted a half-marathon for humanoid robots, resulting in a new record — along with considerable havoc.

A robot from China's smartphone and tech giant, Honor, completed the run in 50 minutes and 26 seconds during the event held in Beijing on Sunday, as recorded in a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area.

This surpasses the existing human half-marathon record set by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo, who clocked in at 57 minutes and 20 seconds just last month.

The performance of Honor's robot is a significant improvement from last year's inaugural race, where the swiftest robot finished in 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 42 seconds. Participation also grew from around 20 teams to over 100 this year.

The event was not solely about speed — it brought a fair share of humorous episodes. Videos shared on social media showed the lively and bumpy aspects of the half-marathon.

In a video shared on Instagram on Sunday, a robot stumbled at the start, falling forward and dismantling upon impact. Its parts were scattered across the track.

Personnel quickly arrived with a stretcher, picking up the parts in a scene reminiscent of a first-aid response.

"Why on earth did they rush over and put it on a stretcher? I'm cracking up," one commenter stated on the Instagram post.

Another Instagram clip depicted the Honor robot colliding with a barrier later in the race. It managed to recover and continued to the finish line, with engineers trailing behind, holding control devices. It added a comedic touch.

"Those guys were really striving to keep pace with that machine," observed a user on the post.

On X, videos showcasing robots toppling and malfunctioning during the marathon became widespread. In one clip shared by SilviusBerthold, robots were seen running into barriers, collapsing mid-race, and jerking on the course.

China is keen to advance and implement humanoid robots, even exploring the incorporation of AI agents like OpenClaw.

Earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk noted in an earnings call that the key competitors to Optimus would probably emerge from China.

Despite this, incidents involving robots in China have consistently made news. In February, a humanoid robot from XPeng took a forward tumble during a public demonstration. XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng compared the event to "children learning to walk."

In a different instance earlier this year, a humanoid robot designed by Unitree unintentionally kicked an engineer during testing.