BEIJING — It was not even close as a bright-red Chinese humanoid named “Lightning” lived up to its name in a half-marathon pitting humans against robots, smoking its competition on Sunday.
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The bipedal humanoid, developed by smartphone maker Honor, blazed through the 13-mile race in just 50 minutes, 26 seconds, besting all 12,000 human competitors and even surpassing the human world record for a half-marathon, set by Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon last month, by nearly seven minutes.
Lightning was slowed down only slightly when it crashed into a railing near the end of the race, with the machine helped back up, recovering to make a dramatic finish.
It was a clean sweep for Honor’s robots, which also took second and third place medals on the podium.
“I felt very nervous,” said Ma Huaze, captain of one of the winning Honor teams. “The biggest challenge was having the courage to perform and test large-scale upgrades on a major competitive stage like this.”
The event in an industrial park area of Beijing featured more than a hundred robots, a significant increase from last year’s inaugural race, when several of the 21 participating humanoids stumbled, careened out of control or just laid down at the starting line, and only six managed to make it across the finish line.
The fastest robot last year, an imposing machine named Tiangong, took 2 hours and 40 minutes to complete the half-marathon, well below the speed of a human pro athlete.
There was no repeat of that humiliation this year, with China’s technological advances on full display: At least four of the humanoids had sub-one-hour times, and there were far fewer units fritzing out. The real-life runners — who were in a parallel lane to avoid any human-on-robot collisions — were impressed by the speed of machines, some slowing down or stopping to take photos of their metallic competitors.
The fastest human to compete, 29-year-old Zhao Haijie, who ran the race in 1 hour, 7 minutes and 47 seconds, said the robots were really on the move within the first 3 miles.
“I felt it was going quite fast,” Zhao said in an interview with NBC News after the race. “It just went whoosh right past me.”
Nearly 40% of the robots were autonomous and running the full distance on their own as they navigated turns, uneven terrain, and other obstacles. Other competitors were operated by remote control, with finishing times adjusted to reflect the different categories.
“I can feel the rapid advancements in our country’s technology,” said Liu Yanli, a 41-year-old financial worker watching from the sidelines with his family.
“For those of us in middle age, it gives us a great sense of security for the future,” he said. Liu’s 6-year-old son, Jinyu, said he liked the robots “carrying a lot of things on them.”
The swarm of high-speed machines looked a bit like science fiction, yet behind the spectacle is a higher-stakes competition between China and the U.S. to develop next-generation humanoids powered by artificial intelligence.
For Xue Qingheng, the race was a public stress test of changes his startup company, Intercity Technology Co., has made to its humanoid model over the past year. The child-size robot named Xiao Cheng has been outfitted with improved motor speed and coordination, as well as better feet, sensors and gait algorithm.
“For us, this process is really about competing against who we were last year,” said Xue in an interview at the company’s studio in Beijing before the event. “This year, we are only racing against ourselves.”
The race champion is set to receive orders worth over a million yuan, or $146,500 U.S., according to city officials organizing the event, as well as capturing attention in a country that has more than 150 humanoid-making companies and research labs. Hundreds of millions of people watched livestream coverage of the race across various platforms.
An intense focus on robotics and AI in China is no accident, with the state providing subsidies for development as well as demand in a top-down strategy to dominate an industry it regards as a “national priority.”
China already dominates the supply chain for AI chips, sensors and batteries, while Beijing’s latest master plan for 2026-2030 sets out a blueprint for futuristic technologies, including brain chips, quantum computing and factories manned by robots that look and move like people.
Backers of humanoid technology say they could be a fixture of industrial and daily life in the not-so-distant future, doing everything from fixing electrical grids to caring for the elderly.
While China is poised to be at the forefront of development, this year’s half-marathon event was not without its setbacks. Teams of technicians followed robots along the course in golf carts, many with stretchers and wheelchairs at the ready in case of trouble.
One robot flipped and face-planted about 200 feet from the starting line, then continued the race with its upper body held together with packing tape. Another humanoid triumphantly crossed the finish line, then promptly veered off course and fell into a bush.
Among all the fast and futuristic models, Xiao Pai, a cute, 2-foot-tall companion robot, bounced along the road carrying a baby bottle.
“Robots today have the body of Mike Tyson but are still missing a brain like Stephen Hawking,” said Xue, whose robot, Xiao Cheng, successfully finished the race.
“Once the brain problem is solved, the scope for imagination here is immense.”
