Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / China Just Deployed Humanoid Robots to Its Border With Vietnam

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China Just Deployed Humanoid Robots to Its Border With Vietnam · Elon Musk Podcast

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  Would help. The show tremendously.
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  Thank you so much. China is deploying humanoid
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  robots to patrol its border with Vietnam.
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  UB Tech Robotics, one of China's top robot manufacturers, secured
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  a $37 million contract to put its Walker S2 humanoid robots
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  and border crossings in Xuanxi province.
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  Deliveries began this month. The robots will guide
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  travellers, conduct inspections, manage crowds and perform
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  logistics work. They stand about 5 feet 9 inches
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  tall, weigh about 95 kilometers, walk on 2 legs like us, and can
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  work continuously because they swap their own batteries without
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  human help. That last detail is super wild.
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  A robot that changes its own power source in about 3 minutes
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  and never needs to stop. We don't need Border Patrol
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  agents anymore, right? The question is whether this is
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  a glimpse of the future or a high profile experiment that
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  will quietly fade when the machine struggle with the chaos
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  of real world border traffic now.
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  The contract was signed with the Humanoid Robot Center in Feng
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  Cheng Gang, the coastal city near the Vietnam border.
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  UB Tech says cumulative orders for its Walker series have
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  reached ¥1.1 billion, around $157 million since shipments
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  began in November. Company plans to deliver 500
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  industrial humanoid robots by the end of 2025 and scale the
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  10,000 units annually by 2027. Now, this is an aggressive
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  production ramp. We're going to walk through what
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  these robots actually do, how the battery swap system works
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  and what it means for workers, and where China's humanoid
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  ambitions fit in the global race against Tesla.
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  Figure in other competitors and we'll get right into that after
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  this very short break. Now, the Walker S2 is built for
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  industrial work, not showroom demos.
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  It's not run by people. It has 90 or 52° of freedom,
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  which means 52 separate joints and axes where it can move.
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  Now the configuration breaks down to 6° of freedom per leg, 2
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  for the waist, 7 per arm, and two for the head.
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  The waist can rotate 162° in either direction.
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  It's 4th generation dexterous hands have 11° of freedom reach
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  and enabling fine manipulation like grasping objects or
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  checking seals on cargo containers.
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  The hands are designed like human like dimensions and can
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  perform sub millimeter precision operations.
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  UV Tech says durability testing exceeds 80,000 cycles and the
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  robot can lift up to 15 kilograms, about £33 per arm,
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  across a workspace stretching from ground level to 1.8 meters
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  high. Torque waist joints let it squat
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  deep and stoop for tasks near the ground.
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  It can walk around 4.5 mph, and that's a brisk walking pace for
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  a human. For a bipedal robot carrying
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  loads in a crowded environment, that is ambitious engineering
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  and the body is constructed from aerospace grade aluminum alloy
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  and carbon fiber reinforced polymer.
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  The bionic arms feature a hollow structure with integrated wiring
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  which enables complex coordinated movements like the
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  autonomous battery swap and the robot uses dual RGB cameras at
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  its head for a stereoscopic vision giving it human like
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  depth perception. Additional sensors and force
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  feedback system support balance in dextrous manipulation, and
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  full body dynamic balancing algorithms keep the robot stable
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  during movement, even when carrying heavy loads or even
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  navigating uneven surfaces. Whether all of this actually
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  works reliably outside of controlled factory conditions is
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  a very open question in the feature drawing the most
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  attention for me is the battery swap.
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  The Walker S2 uses 248 Volt lithium ion battery packs that
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  discharge in parallel. When walking, runtime is
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  approximately 2 hours. When standing or performing
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  tasks stationarily, runtime exceeds to about four plus hours
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  a recharge. A full recharge without the
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  battery swap takes about 90 minutes.
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  But instead of waiting for the charge, the robot navigates on
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  its own to a swap station. It removes the depleted battery
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  with its own hands, place it is places it in a charger, then it
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  grabs another battery with whatever power it has in its
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  body and it installs it. The whole process takes around 3
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  minutes now. A backup battery keeps the
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  system running during the swap, so the robot never fully powers
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  down. It's designed to run 24 hours a
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  day, seven days a week continuous operation, and Ubitec
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  claims the system can achieve over 98% uptime.
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  Most rabbits require scheduled downtime for charging.
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  This one does not. It just swaps the battery out.
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  And now border crossings don't pause at night either.
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  You know the robots will not pause for anything now.
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  Now at the fencing gang border, the Walk Arrest 2 units will
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  handle several roles. Some will guide travelers
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  through queues, direct vehicle traffic and ansic basic
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  questions. Think a bit like an airport
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  information kiosk, except it walks around and it actually
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  talks to you. And other robots will patrol
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  corridors and waiting areas, watching for blocked exits or
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  crowd patterns that might need human intervention.
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  A third group will work in cargo lanes, checking container IDs,
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  confirming seals and relaying status updates to dispatch
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  centers. And the robots will also inspect
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  steel, copper and aluminum facilities nearby, walking
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  structured routes through industrial yards.
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  The keyword in all of this is support.
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  These machines are helpers. They're here to help people
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  along. They don't make any decisions.
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  And the humans still run the whole border.
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  Now Ubtech says it's Walker S2 uses something called brain net
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  two point O combined with a Co agent EI framework.
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  Those are internal names for systems that handle multimodal
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  reasoning, task planning, and autonomous exception handling.
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  So to break it down, the robot can perceive its environment
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  through cameras similar to Tesla, plan a sequence of steps
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  to complete a task and adjust when something unexpected
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  happens. It uses binocular stereo Vision
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  2 cameras working together like human eyes to judge depth and
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  distance. This is how it navigates factory
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  floors and crowded border halls without bumping into people or
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  tripping over your luggage. Dynamic balancing algorithms
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  keep it stable during movement in case it does trip even when
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  carrying heavy loads. And the system runs on Ubuntu
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  with Rosa 2 point O. So this is an operating system
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  supporting over the air updates. UB Tech says the AI continuously
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  optimizes using billions of data points accumulated from
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  industrial training. This might be the year of the
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  Linux of Linux here with Ubuntu in these robots.
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  I mean, the the Linux desktop may be coming in robot form.
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  Whether all of this works reliably in this messy world of
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  humans, that's an open question now.
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  This deployment fits a broader national strategy out In 2023,
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  China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued
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  guidance calling for a national innovation system around human
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  robots. By 2025, the ministry opened
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  consultation on a Standardization Committee, an
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  expert group that writes industry rules for humanoid
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  robots. Now the UB Tech founder was
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  appointed vice director of that committee, alongside leaders
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  from other major robotics companies like Unit Tree and
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  Agbot. The Co founder of Agbot and Wang
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  Zhengzheng, founder of Unit Tree, also holds seats.
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  That means the companies building these robots are also
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  helping write the standards they must meet.
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  Imagine that Chinese officials treat humanoid robots as a
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  strategic industry. The Feng Chang Gang project is a
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  public test of whether the technology is ready for
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  regulated high visibility environments.
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  So at the border is very strict. There are certain rules you have
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  to abide by and there are certain lanes that people have
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  to go in. There's certain things that are
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  happening now in a busy city street, things are completely
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  different. Things are wild.
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  And this is a test to see how these robots do in human
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  environments where there's a little bit of commotion, but not
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  like a city, you know? So the scale of chain is
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  humanoid robot push is significant.
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  UB Tech operates 2 dedicated humanoid factories, one in
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  Shenzheng and another in Lezhou. I'm not exactly how to say this,
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  but Guangzhi, the company says it has full stack capabilities,
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  meaning it handles everything, research, manufacturing and
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  sales all in one place so they don't outsource things.
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  Chief Branding Officer Michael Tam told the South China Morning
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  Post that UB Tech aims to reduce unit costs below $20,000 by
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  2030. That's what Elon Watts, the
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  price for a Tesla about to be the current price is.
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  It's well over $100,000 per unit today if humanoid robots cost as
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  much as mid range cars instead of a luxury vehicle like a model
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  S3 or a model. S sorry.
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  Or I was thinking of a model 3, but a Model S and it can bring
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  it down to less than a model three.
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  There we go. Adoption could accelerate across
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  everywhere in China. The question is whether UB tech
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  can cut costs while scaling production and maintaining
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  reliability of these robots. Right now Ubi tech isn't
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  profitable. Even as orders grow, the company
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  remains loss making. So it's like the old tech
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  startup deal. You build something until you
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  figure out a way to make money, right?
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  You just ramp and ramp and ramp. And the global competition is
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  heating up, of course. Tesla's Optimist humanoid robot
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  has been in development for a few years now.
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  Since 2021, Elon Musk has said that Tesla could produce
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  millions of units, and that Optimist could eventually become
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  the company's most valuable product.
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  And he wants to start making millions of these things in a
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  few years. Figure AI raised over $600
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  million in 2024 and has partnered with BMW to deploy
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  robots in manufacturing. Boston Dynamics continues to
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  refine Atlas. Agility Robotics is testing its
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  Digit robot in Amazon warehouses.
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  And the difference with Ubitec is speed and deployment.
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  While American companies are still running pilots and
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  demonstrations, Ubitec is shipping 500 industrial humanoid
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  robots this year. It planning for 10,000 by 2027.
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  If Elon actually ships a million robots in the next 5 years, UB
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  tech is in trouble. Whether speed translates to
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  reliability remains to be seen with UB tech, but they are ahead
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  of Tesla right now. So China is beating America in
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  this and the implications for workers are in peril.
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  Border crossings employ a lot of people, thousands of people.
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  Automations that handle crowd management, logistics and
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  routine inspections could either get these people laid off or
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  fired, or just shift their job responsibilities to something
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  else. And Ubi tech frames the robots
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  as helpers. That human staff could be freed
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  up for more higher level work. Now there could be job
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  displacement. Surveillance is a problem, and
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  accountability when machines make those mistakes.
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  Like who's in charge? The significant change is
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  continuous operation. There's no downtime.
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  Machines that work non-stop raise questions about what
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  happens to the workers who used to cover the night shifts.
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  Those are the people that were doing the hard work.
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  You do the night shift, you start late, you end early in the
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  morning, sleep all day, do it again.
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  But what are you going to do? Because those shifts are going
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  to be taken over by a robot. There aren't that many nice
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  shifts anymore. Now, rescaling programs in
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  hybrid models that combine human and robotic labor will be part
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  of the future. That's what happens when any
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  industry gets disrupted. What are these rescaling
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  programs? How can you make yourself
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  valuable? Anybody that's in a program
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  right now that you know that you do very minimal physical labor
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  but also very minimal mind labor, you will eventually be
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  replaced by a robot. The AI is coming for your jobs,
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  and I'm not joking. I think it's true.
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  The way that these robotics companies are getting funded is
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  like early stage web companies when I was around at the
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  beginning of the Internet and all of our companies got funded
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  out the roof. I have sold numerous companies
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  to other startups and they just scooped us all up because it was
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  just you get all the information you can, get all the data you
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  can and get all those people that are talented into your crew
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  and then you get rid of the people that aren't doing the
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  high value tasks. So anybody that's listening
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  right now and thinks that they're going to be OK, please
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  think about it again because there's the way that they will
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  be able to replace you with a robot or with some AI.
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  Most of the front end web development jobs that were low
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  end, even that, I mean, it's just that was my old industry,
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  front end web development. I do video production now for
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  social media and marketing and all the front end developers
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  that I know, if they're not senior level, are in real rough
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  shape. They have gotten their jobs
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  taken away. AI can create a website for you.
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  Front end, beautiful front end designed in matter of minutes.
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  I actually created 1 today, and I was just goofing off, and I
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  created a site that would have taken a team of five to 10
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  people about 5 or 6 months five years ago, and I did it within
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  minutes. So the technology is going to
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  replace you. Now.
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  If this pilot succeeds, similar deployments could be at
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  airports, seaports or train stations across China.
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  So next time you travel to China, watch out for these
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  robots. Other countries are going to be
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  next. The global market for humanoid
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  robots in industrial and public service applications is
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  projected to grow rapidly through the end of the decade.
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  So if you want a stable job in the future, get into robotics if
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  you're technically a client. Companies in the US, Europe and
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  Japan are accelerating development because they're
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  going to fall behind if they don't catch up with China.
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  Ubitec's Walker S2 deployment is a transition from controlled
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  factory environments to unpredictable field operations.
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  Border crossings are crowded, noisy, and full of unexpected
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  weird people. Schedules are tight in
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  inspections cannot easily stop. You got to keep going if the
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  robots handle that environment reliably.
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  If they can figure this out, it'll strengthen the case for
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  humanoid robots in other complex public settings like police,
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  public service, things like that.
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  Fire departments can be replaced too, by robots.
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  Why would you, why would you risk a person when you can have
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  a robot? And I know it's a, it's a long
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  shot here. Why would you hurt a person when
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  a robot could do the job and not worry about getting, you know,
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  killed on the job? It's just a no brainer.
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  Fire departments are going to be replaced by robots police, some,
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  I think crowd control type stuff, yes, but other police
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  know. But yeah, I think it's going to
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  be a matter of time, You know, like taxi drivers, of course
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  they're they're going to be replaced by by robot cars.
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  It's going to be it's going to be all over the place.
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  But now if this fails, the Ubtec, Ubtec Walker S2
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  deployment fails, it'll reinforced the fact that there's
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  still a gap between demos and real world performance because
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  real world performance right now is in a very small sections of
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  warehouses in manufacturing facilities.
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  There aren't that many that are performing in public right now
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  without people behind the behind the the glass controlling them.
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  So either way, this is a huge moment for the robotics
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  industry, and it's going to change how things are perceived
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  in the future. I think robots are cool.
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  I think they have a place. We already have robots all over
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  the place, you know, you just don't know it.
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  Like your kiosk when you order food, someplace like that's a
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  robot. It's all a robot.
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  They're not humanoid robots, mind you.
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  But everything you're using right now, your phone, it's a
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  little robot. Your computer, it's kind of a
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  robot, but anything with mechanical parts and some AI in
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  it, think of that as you know, he already used this technology.
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  Anything that you interact with in real life with your body and
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  your hands. Maybe it doesn't walk, maybe it
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  doesn't talk, maybe it doesn't hand you things or have hands,
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  But we're already interacting with some of this technology is
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  just going to develop into something that's going to be
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  more humanoid in the future. So my warning to you is to be
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  careful with your jobs because you could get them taken by a
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  humanoid robot in the next five years or before, depending on if
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  there's a big breakthrough. Hey, thank you so much for
• 20:12
  listening today. I really do appreciate your
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