TechCrunch Mobility: ‘Physical AI’ enters the hype machine - TechCrunch
San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026 WAITLIST NOW “The internet was also a hype, remember in 2000, the crisis of the internet,” Shashua said. “It did not mean that [the] internet is not a real thing.
Key takeaways
The most recent developments show humanoid robots moving from high‑profile demos toward large‑scale industrial deployment. At Davos, three robotics experts warned that useful real‑world applications will require better sensors and AI models that can handle unanticipated situations, and they noted that cost‑effective solutions for tasks such as laundry folding remain prohibitively expensive. Hyundai announced a plan to field 30,000 Atlas humanoid robots annually from 2028 at its Georgia EV Metaplant, but the company’s labour union has cautioned that no robots will be installed without a formal agreement, warning of potential employment shocks. In Europe, Airbus has begun testing UBTech’s Walker S2 humanoid—capable of lifting 7.5 kg per hand, hot‑swapping batteries and pivoting 180 degrees—for aircraft assembly, marking the first European purchase of Chinese humanoids. Meanwhile, Chinese firm Agibot, ranked No. 1 globally for embodied intelligence, celebrated the rollout of its 5,168th mass‑produced robot and launched operations in Malaysia, underscoring a 39 % share of the worldwide market. OpenAI quietly expanded a San Francisco robotics lab that now employs about 100 data collectors to teach humanoid arms household tasks, though its humanoid prototype remains largely unused. Ford, partnering with the UK‑based Humanoid company, completed a proof‑of‑concept at its Cologne Innovation Centre, demonstrating wheeled Alpha HMND 01 robots handling tote kitting and dual‑arm manipulation of large car body parts using NVIDIA’s digital‑twin platform. Tesla’s Optimus humanoid is slated to transition from factory prototype to consumer product by the end of 2026, with Elon Musk promising “very high reliability” and a broad range of domestic tasks. Across the sector, analysts note a shift—particularly in China—away from spectacle toward pilots that deliver clear economic value, as manufacturers combine large‑scale embodiment datasets, vision‑language‑action models and robust contact‑rich execution to turn humanoid concepts into commercial reality.
San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026
WAITLIST NOW
“The internet was also a hype, remember in 2000, the crisis of the internet,” Shashua said. “It did not mean that [the] internet is not a real thing. Hype means that companies are overvalued for a certain period of time, and then they crash. It does not mean that the domain is not real. I believe that the domain of humanoids is real.”
A few notable stories from CES: Nvidia launches Alpamayo, open AI models that allow autonomous vehicles to ‘think like a human’
This is Uber’s new robotaxi from Lucid and Nuro
Mobileye acquires humanoid robot startup Mentee Robotics for $900M
Now onto the other non-CES and more recent news …
A little bird Hyundai had one of the busiest and largest exhibits with a near-constant line wrapped around the entrance. The Korean automaker wasn’t showing cars. Nope, it was robots of various forms, including the Atlas humanoid robot, courtesy of its subsidiary Boston Dynamics. There were also innovations that have come out of Hyundai Motor Group Robotics LAB, including a robot that charges electric autonomous vehicles, and a four-wheel electric platform called the Mobile Eccentric Droid (MobEd) that is going into production this year. It seems everyone was embracing and showcasing robotics, particularly humanoids. The hype around humanoids, specifically, and physical AI, in general, was palpable. I asked Mobileye co-founder and president Amnon Shashua about this because his company just bought his humanoid robotics startup for $900 million: “What do you say when people tell you humanoid robots are all hype?”
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