Chinese Company Xiaomi Debuts Humanoid Robot, Beating Tesla

Elon Musk’s Tesla has been teasing a person-like robot for about a year — but Chinese company Xiaomi has beaten him to the punch.

Last week, Xiaomi announced their humanoid robot via Tweet and press release.

I was both nervous and thrilled to interact with him on stage. What did you think of his performance tonight? #CyberOne pic.twitter.com/Je1eXDYEGR

— leijun (@leijun) August 11, 2022

The video was from a Xiaomi product launch in Beijing on August 11.

In the video, Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Xiaomi, talks to CyberOne, the robot, who greets him in a friendly manner and hands him a flower. “Hi Lei Jun, you are taller than I thought,” the robot says, per the English subtitles, and hands him a red flower.

CyberOne also demonstrates a kung fu pose, takes a selfie with Lei Jun, and reacts to the delight of the crowd. “I heard clapping, it seems like I’ve done a good job,” the robot says.

“The development of CyberOne is a symbol of Xiaomi’s dedication to incubate a technological ecosystem centered in a single point, and connect it with the world in ways never seen before,” the company said in the press release.

Elon Musk has been talking about Tesla’s humanoid robot and robotics since August 2021, according to CNET.

“We think we’ll have a prototype sometime next year,” he said last year. He added that he wants the robot to be friendly and could help with tasks like getting groceries. In June 2022, he announced Tesla would have the robot, Optimus, by September 30, according to Electrek.

Xiaomi might have beaten Tesla, but the first-ever humanoid robot may have been a robot-soldier with a trumpet created in 1810. The first-ever human-like robot to become a citizen was Sophia, who became a Saudi Arabian citizen in 2017, according to Forbes.

CyberOne uses vision to metabolize its surroundings, the press release added. It can see 3D space as well as detect human emotions and respond with its own “voice.”

“CyberOne is able to detect happiness, and even comfort the user in times of sadness. All of these features are integrated into CyberOne’s processing units,” the statement added.

Xiaomi is a company known for imitating Apple designs, per The Verge, and has produced a robot that, as the outlet wrote, can be officially called a “short king” — clocking in at 5 feet, 8 inches.

It also looks pretty similar to the robots in the movie “Ex Machina,” as CNN pointed out.

You can watch it walk around here:

Tesla did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur’s request for comment.