Just weeks after UBTech featured one of the scariest humanoid robot videos on YouTube, the company announced one of the first jobs of the Walker S2 android, working at the border crossing between China and Vietnam.
As reported by SCMP, UBTech just landed a huge contract (US$37 million) with a Chinese province that shares its border with Vietnam.
In the video, a hangar reveals a virtual army of Walker S2 robots watching, moving and marching in unison towards waiting cargo containers. Each image recalls scenes from the film in which a trailer blocks the path of Will Smith’s self-driving car and the giant door opens to reveal hundreds of mass-produced humanoid robots that leap out of position and attack. Even the robots in the cargo containers remind me of other scenes in the movie.
For UBTech, however, the moment was a source of pride, as it wrote in the YouTube caption: “Major milestone achieved! The world’s first mass delivery of humanoid robots has been completed! Hundreds of UBTECH Walker S2 have been delivered to our partners. The future of industrial automation is here. Moving towards transformation!”
It now appears that many of these ready-to-run industrial robots will be delivered, in part, to the China-Vietnam border.
UBTech Walker S2 is just one of many humanoid robots appearing in the news. There is the Time Magazine cover model Figure 03, and the 1X Neo Beta, which, although mass delivery is still months away, is billed as a $20,000 out-of-the-box home helper and companion.
While we don’t know how much the UBTech Walker S2 costs, we do have some specs on the 5-foot, 7-inch tall, 154-pound robot. It can walk up to 4 mph, features a pair of dexterous hands with touch sensors, and a built-in LLM for voice communication through its built-in microphones and speakers.
There’s something vaguely dystopian about a dispassionate army of humanoid robots working on border tasks, and one can only imagine that success in China might inspire humanoid robotics companies to try selling their robots to other border management operations.
However, since robots are not guided by feelings or prejudices, perhaps they could be more reasonable about activities that cross borders. This, however, may be an illusion.
What is certain is that government agencies and industries are increasingly interested in AI and automation to take on repetitive and difficult tasks.
SCMP reports that UBTech plans to deliver 500 Walker S2 robots by the end of 2025 and 10,000 by 2027.
It is no longer difficult to imagine a future in which humanoid robots work in homes, factories, stores, offices and at borders. Surely things will turn out better than in I, robot.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
The best PC drivers
