7 ms·
Chinese robot runs 100M sprint quicker than Usain Bolt's world record
- sys_64738 2mo agoRobots are human, too. Ah, wait. Never mind.
- unprovable 2mo agoUsain Volt
- treetalker 2mo agoUsain Nuts and Bolts
- mbeavitt 2mo agoIt's crazy how these records are just quietly being broken by humanoid robots. What's next? What a time to be alive.
- grim_io 2mo agoHorses are faster than humans. I don't see them suddenly taking over based on that fact alone.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- hobofan 2mo agoYou can't "program" a horse to do construction or assembly line jobs, can you?
- qayxc 2mo agoMy contacts at various factories and my own eyes after touring said factories tell me that the assembly lines have been mostly run by programmed (no quotes required, just SPS) robots for the past 50 years or so. Welcome back to the 1970s I guess? The ones I see deployed in construction do stuff like drilling holes in hard to reach places, or laying bricks. None of them look like people, though. Much like the typical household dishwasher hasn't been named Alice or Doris for the past 50+ years, but rather Bosch or Samsung and doesn't use actual hands. But yeah, humanoid robots do look cool and many movies and books told us to be fearful of them.
- qsera 2mo ago>What a time to be alive. Totally. In a little while, you might even be able to marry a robot and even raise robot kids. What a time to be alive indeed! I highly doubt that that it will happen. But just mocking the celebration of paving a path towards the death of all things that makes being a human worth all the pain..
- blaufuchs 2mo agoYknow, for a tech news aggregation website, some of you really hate technology
- p_j_w 2mo agoDo you think people on hackernews should embrace every use of technology?
- Retric 2mo agoTechnology isn’t a single unified thing. People can like GPS while disliking nuclear weapons without any contradiction. I dislike the vast waste of resources happening during the current AI bubble, and don’t really care about generative AI.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- skeledrew 2mo ago> the death of all things that makes being a human worth all the pain I'd say that's the problem. There are people who think humans are uniquely special/purposed, and AI is systematically destroying that notion. They need to wake up, or they may find themselves jumping off a bridge or something.
- qsera 2mo agoHumans are special because they can feel. You know what it means to "feel", right?
- gruturo 2mo ago> What's next? Killer robots which can't be outrun and which can give chase through urban landscapes > What a time to be alive Indeed.
- ncr100 2mo agoWhat's next: Waiting patiently, as the perfect sniper. First hiking 10 miles into enemy territory. Then laying down in low-power mode, for 120 days. Finally waiting for "important enemy person" to pass by, and then using a weapon with super-human sensory skills + weaponry. Note - Does not need to be humanoid. We need to start Waging Peace, as our ability to kill each other is outstripping our willingness to live peacefully together.
- wlonkly 2mo agoIt's my impression that the killer robot industry has focused primarily on dog-shaped robots over human. Being bipedal gave us a lot of advantages, but "incredibly fast runner" isn't one of them. Usain Bolt is incredibly fast for a human, but cheetahs are twice as fast still (and, presumably, can climb stairs too). I do appreciate the engineering achievement on its own, but there seems to be an implied "and will replace humans" vibe here that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
- zeristor 2mo agoRobo Olympics? Humans on enhancements vs robots?
- feverzsj 2mo agoThey ran so fast that most of them crashed into pieces in the end.
- EA-3167 2mo agoRobot Wars with government funding and a coat of paint? Ok then.
- AngryData 2mo agoHow many times/long can it do that before being recharged? Can it do other walking and mobility tasks? The headline by itself doesn't really mean much, anyone can build a purpose-built robot to beat specific human limitations. The question is can it have that kind of performance without completely foregoing most other tasks and abilities.
- shevy-java 2mo agoI agree there, but IMO these are problems that can be fairly easily solved. My bigger problem is that this is labelled as "humanoid robot". IMO that is more like some machine gadget that looks very remotely like some non-descript model of a humanoid, but not anything at all like a humanoid robot. I am a bit spoiled by Blade Runner here - these robots right now come nowhere close to anything like that right now, even if they run faster than Usain Bolt (but they run differently, so they are cheating; look at the angles, the tiny feet, the cheating in the hip area, the barely existing head - so many things are CHEATING here. I can not call this humanoid robot).
- hakfoo 2mo agoThere's a good chance that most humanoid robots are not going to look particularly hunan. You might have different proportions due to different weight distribution or use cases (maybe the legs are made less flexible if the workspace has fewer obstables, for example. Maybe "bipedal" is a better descriptor, since wheels are a proven way to go faster than Usain Bolt, but walking-style strides are new.
- skeledrew 2mo ago> How many times/long can it do that before being recharged? Can it do other walking and mobility tasks? You should ask those questions in the same spirit re a 1 vs a 5 vs a 20 year old. May lead to some insight on development-level-based capability.
- mmooss 2mo ago> anyone can build a purpose-built robot to beat specific human limitations Anyone could build a robot that could run on two legs at that speed for 100m? I think someone would have done it before. Even the other robots in the race were slower.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- joduplessis 2mo agoThis is super exciting for fast message delivery. I'm so tired of my messages taking 2 weeks to deliver! 3000km shouldn't take that long! Personally I'm really looking forward to a world where my message can take maybe even a week to deliver to someone 2000km - 3000km away. What a time to be alive.
- thangalin 2mo agoTry radio.
- joduplessis 2mo agoSir, why would I put on a "radio" when I've got a perfectly healthy pigeon, readied and waiting?
- bena 2mo agoIt’s the distance rather than the speed that is impressive. Or, to be more accurate, the distance at that speed. Because, of course the machine which does not tire and is deliberately designed to be durable and exceed natural human tolerances are better than humans. Cranes can lift far more than the strongest man. But I understand that historically, bipedal machines have had balancing issues. The number of slight adjustments needed are significant. And doing it while at that speed and also not tumbling over is an achievement.
- SoftTalker 2mo agoA machine is stronger and faster than a human? Shocking. Next we'll learn that cranes can lift heavy loads faster than a human with ropes and pulleys.
- paulpauper 2mo agoa bullet is faster than any car. the point is, it's a humanoid type robot, not just a faster vehicle.
- shevy-java 2mo agoWhy would you call it "humanoid"? Can you qualify this? Because I came to the conclusion that this is NOT a humanoid robot. Having one rectangle and four long spear-like things, does not make something "humanoid". So which criteria do you use?
- nom 2mo agoit is of humanoid shape
- phoghed 2mo agoPer the article > Lightning the humanoid robot clocks 9.32sec in Beijing Bipedal, hips, knees, feet. Looks humanoid to me. If cloudflare puts this in a grid of images and asks me to pick the humanoids, I’m clicking it
- paulpauper 2mo agoyea people will look for any reason to disagree. It's right in the article.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- petcat 2mo agoI think of "humanoid" as a machine capable of operating in the same complex physical environment as humans do. For instance, it is generally more comfortable for a healthy adult human to use a steep staircase than a steep ramp. So a "humanoid" robot would be capable of using the same staircase instead of requiring a ramp to be purpose-built just for it.
- m3kw9 2mo agoI'm not impressed if you are gonna compare a strength and pretty 1D dex of a machine to a human.
- graemep 2mo agoIts a nice demo of advances, but its not hugely significant in the way some comments here make it out to be. We have had machines faster than humans for a long time. We have had animals faster than humans for longer than there have been humans.
- petcat 2mo ago> We have had machines faster than humans for a long time Yes it is true that we have had machines on rubber wheels that can move very fast on open roadways. But these new machines are also capable of walking up and down stairs, navigating obstacles, using doorways, and generally operating in the same complex spaces that humans do. Now apparently they can run really fast too.
- prmph 2mo agoYes, but these robots can presumably go where wheels can't
- seydor 2mo agoOne day that robot will invent the wheel
- skeledrew 2mo agoThere will be no escape. Prepare to be outperformed in all the things.
- oulipo 2mo agoYou won't be outperformed in humanity. And that's precisely the point. People will start rejecting AI and robots en masse, because they'll get disgusted by it, the same way you are disgusted when eating a "powder shake" kind of meal compared to a whole, earthy, flavorful, home-made meal
- wincy 2mo agoWorkers hated the factories of the Industrial Revolution but the masses also wanted those sweet sweet high quality textiles that were tighter knit and lasted longer than anything handspun. The same will happen for AI. Also, further counterpoint, if we reject industrial produced food, who spent $139 billion at McDonald’s in 2025?
- oulipo 2mo ago"who spent $139B at McDonald's" perhaps in the US, sure, you guys are weird But in Europe, McDonalds is a drop in the bucket compared to all the rest of the restaurants. People DO prefer real stuff
- bluefirebrand 2mo agoIf people were rejecting them en masse now we might have a chance to reverse this As it stands I am not hopeful. I believe the frog will be well and truly boiled long before we reach the rejection en masse stage and it will be too late to change course
- skeledrew 2mo ago> humanity What does that even mean? BTW I consumed Soylent regularly for several years while living in the US and was never "disgusted" by it. Would love to get my hands on some now as it's been so long. You should watch your arguments.
- utopcell 2mo agoI don't want to alarm people but I hear they now have automobiles that can outrun humans.
- shevy-java 2mo agoWell - in a way this is nice, just for documented record, even though a bit useless too. However had, I watched it, and I have some problems here. First: these robots have barely any head. I think for a humanoid robot, you need to have a proper head with some weight in relation to the rest, otherwise it is just SIMULATING being humanoid. Then the feet; this is also a problem. Specifically the feet are not like human feet at all, they are more like stubs or elongated stubs with push-back being made-super easy. Usain Bolt does not have such short jokes of feet, so this comparison is unfair. Same with the hip area - I am sorry, but the hip structure of these robots is ABSOLUTELY not at all like a human. I am not even calling these humanoids. Don't get me wrong, it is good that science and technology progresses and such robots may do things that robots solely with a wheel alone, may be unable to do, such as running, climbing, you name it. But I simply can not call them "humanoid". They are, IMO, simply not humanoid and not even humanoid-like. For "proper" science fiction, have a look at the first Blade Runner movie, but also the first terminator. Initially Cameron thought Arnold was unfit because he was massive and the infiltrating cyborg should melt into the environment easily (which was better in Terminator 2, T1000 was kind of more "logical", but I hated the background storyline in Terminator 2, it made no sense to me, no clue why people preferred that over the original terminator movie). I am aware that these running robots don't aim to be a look-alike replacement, but they simply also should not be called humanoid robots right now. They simply are not humanoid. Thus one should not call them that way.
- timedude 2mo agoNice, but can it outrun Tom Cruise?
- bethekidyouwant 2mo agoBoth robots were carried away on stretcher afterwards…
- drnick1 2mo agoIn other news, my Corolla also travels faster than Usain Bolt.
- throw101010 2mo agoAll the snarky comments about cars or other vehicles doing it faster seem to miss the point that none of these attempt to mimic/improve on the running movements of humans... but I guess you do you, this is an impressive robotics feat in my oponion.
- qayxc 2mo agoIt would've been impressive 15 years ago. People seem to forget that first humanoid robot capable of competently walking was showcased by Honda 26 years ago. over 20 years ago, the updated version was capable of running and climbing stairs. So a purpose-built (look at the thing - running is all it can actually do) two legged fast running robot doesn't seem all that impressive today. Cool? Sure! Useful? Not so much. Impressive? Whatever... it's just showing off at this point, much like Boston Dynamic's Atlas series that went nowhere (in contrast to this machine: this one did half marathon distance:)
- throw1234567891 2mo agoWe've been seeing humanoid robots walking, jumping, climbing stairs for at least a decade.
- mmooss 2mo agoIf this Silicon Valley forum is full of people denying the achievement, and the US goverment is banning the technology and competition, I expect the engineers and scientists in China will pull much further ahead. The US is behaving like an industry incumbent, like Blackberry when the iPhone came out. That the US could fall behind on technology seems to have not crossed many minds. It will be very hard to overcome that first mover advantage.
- throw1234567891 2mo ago> If this Silicon Valley forum There are people from all over the planet hre. More like "If this forum created by a guy from Silicon Valley..."
- mmooss 2mo agoTrue, but I think it's still centered very much on SV. For example, those Chinese engineers aren't here.
- vivekd 2mo agoI keep reading about these things in the news, and they are nice marketing stance. But I still wonder how far we are away from humanoid robots being commonplace in every day life. I don't share the fear some seem to have towards robots, just because a world filled with robots was something I dreamed of as kid. But I still wonder about the cost and feasibility of robot police officers, or cashiers etc.
- conartist6 2mo agoI'd be fine with it if they were alive. If not, no.
- andai 2mo agoThose Chinese robot demos show more signs of life than zoomer service workers
- esseph 2mo agoAnybody that has to work with the public and is toward the bottom of the economic totem pole has a bit of the shit end of the stick tbf. Has to be an absolutely crushing feeling, especially if they don't see a way to college or if they've lost faith in the institution or degree.
- layla5alive 2mo agoAs recently as the 1990s and early 2000s, that was not the case. I worked plenty of such jobs and it was 'fine' - most people were nice, a few were jerks, a few were above and beyond nice. It was really not so bad, and in many ways preferable from a human interaction standpoint to working at a big tech company, especially post-RTO mania
- esseph 2mo ago> As recently as the 1990s and early 2000s, that was not the case. Yep. A lot happened since then! - 9/11 - 2008 recession - 20+ years of warfare - Student Debt Crisis - Housing Crisis - COVID - Now Venezuela, Iran War, Cuba on the on-deck spot - Tariffs massively increasing costs of goods You're talking about 25-36 years ago. I remember all of it. Gen Z has a much higher debt burden per degree, they have a much higher home price-to-income ratio, much higher baseline living costs, and they are socially and culturally vastly different from the people in charge in this country right now. Now they're dealing with AI pushing down both wages and the number of positions, especially entry level ones. It's no fucking wonder!
- kasperni 2mo agoThe live stream was here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOVNn1aRAIE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOVNn1aRAIE Watching robot after robot being taken away on a stretcher was pretty funny.
- quickthrowman 2mo agoI’m much more interested in seeing a robot with excellent fine motor control. A robot folding a piece of tissue paper without ripping it would be more impressive to me than this robot or the backflip robot.
- t_mehmet 2mo agoDid this thing travel thru a time portal and ask for a boots, clothes sunglasses and motorcycle too? this stuff seems to be evolving very quickly now. wasnt that long ago these things were legs only with cables and bunch of humans holding it.
- throw1234567891 2mo agoIt's cheating. Make it start from the crouch start.
- mikewarot 2mo agoIf you're going to compare mechanical things to humans, Google tells me a Top Fuel Dragster could do it in about 1.9 seconds, finishing at about 320 kph or so. Machines using fossil fuels have been able to do more than men or beast for centuries now.
- beAbU 2mo agoStop moving the goalposts. This is a bipedal robot. I want to see a top fuel dragster accomplish the same running on two legs.
- mikewarot 2mo agoFor the first second or so, a dragster is only on 2 wheels ;-)
- daft_pink 2mo agoi totally agree. I read this and was like i bet the prius in my driveway could do it a lot faster too, who cares.