The robot butler dream doesn’t have legs - The Verge
Humanoid robots will take to the catwalk at IFA this week to show us how far they’ve come. But after years of living with home robots, I think we’re chasing the wrong machine. If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission.
Key takeaways
- XPENG Inc. announced on September 7 2026 that its humanoid‑robot production lines in Guangzhou are now fully operational, with the world’s first advanced general‑purpose humanoid robot—IRON—autonomously walking off the line after completing production.
- The plant boasts over 80 % core process automation, 76 degrees of freedom across the body and 21 degrees of freedom per hand, and is powered by three Turing‑AI chips capable of 2 250 TOPS.
- XPENG plans to begin mass production by the end of 2026, with the first robots slated for delivery in 2027 to Chinese and overseas markets.
- Meanwhile, China’s military has intensified efforts to transition humanoid robots from laboratory prototypes to combat training, following the World Humanoid Robot Games that showcased robots running faster than Usain Bolt and performing various tasks; the People’s Liberation Army’s official newspaper has called for accelerated deployment of humanoid “combatants” alongside robot dogs and unmanned vehicles.
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Humanoid robots will take to the catwalk at IFA this week to show us how far they’ve come. But after years of living with home robots, I think we’re chasing the wrong machine.
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
LG’s CLOiD is a robot housekeeper on wheels, not legs. The company says it’s developing a robot foundation model by training hundreds of CLOiDs in home environments.
| Image: LG
Part Of Second, tech history has proven that precious few gadgets do multiple things well. We don’t need an expensive jack of all trades and master of none. At CES, I walked around the Las Vegas show floor with a bottle of laundry detergent, challenging every humanoid robot I met to open it. Not a single one could. I was repeatedly told it had to learn how to do it first.
Switchbot is another smart home company developing a robot housekeeper. Its Onero home robot will be at IFA this week, showing its skills.
Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
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