In a half-marathon held in Beijing, China, humanoid robots astonished spectators by surpassing human performance records. The winning robot completed the distance in just 50 minutes and 26 seconds. In comparison, human athlete Jacob Kiplimo had recently covered the same distance in 57 minutes.
Robot’s victory, human surprise
Many observers believe that such a competition between humans and robots is not entirely fair. One social media user remarked, “My car can also run faster than a cheetah.” However, compared to previous years, this marks a dramatic improvement. Last year, the fastest robot completed the race in 2 hours and 40 minutes. At that time, a journalist commented that such a time “would not be impressive for humans at all.”
Winning robot and technology
According to the news agency Associated Press, this year’s winning robot was developed by the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor. Interestingly, another robot from Honor finished the race in 48 minutes and 19 seconds. However, that robot was operated via remote control. The robot that completed the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds was fully autonomous. Based on a weight-adjusted scoring system, the autonomous robot was declared the winner.
Participation and challenges
According to Beijing E-Town Tech Hub, around 40 percent of the participating robots were autonomous, while the remaining 60 percent were remotely controlled. Not all robots performed as successfully as Honor’s machines. One robot fell at the starting line, while another collided with an obstacle.
This competition demonstrates that robots’ running capabilities are improving year by year. However, whether it is reasonable to directly compare them with humans remains an open question.
