State of Robotics: Q2 2026

After a successful trial in the US, BMW is bringing its first humanoid robots to a European factory. Just like a host of its competitors, the Bavarian company is investing heavily in the future of robotics to manufacture its products.

The evolution is now going incredibly fast. Where the old production robots would cost millions and dictate the layout of a plant, the new humanoid machines can be plugged into existing production lines without huge investment. We are actually getting close to where they have the capabilities to replace humans on the line. With some distinct advantages: they don't get tired, don't need bathroom breaks, don't stay up all night to binge on a new Netflix special, etc... Plug them in from time to time and off they go.

While BMW is tentatively wading into the humanoid robot race, Renault is diving in head first. Well, shoulders first I should say, as this particular machine is headless. The difference in approach between the two car makers highlights a different logic. Where BMW is trialing the machines to do intricate work on the actual production line that requires a lot of dexterity, Renault is counting on them to take over the brute force tasks like hauling tires and repositioning supplies. Not the most glorious assignments, but much easier to implement and the main reason why they will increase the volume to 350 in their factories in the next 18 months. The whole exercise is part of a much bigger drive to rapidly increase the efficiency at the French manufacturer in a bid to catch up to the top Chinese OEMs.

As such the whole AI + Robots evolution is an interesting one from an economical perspective. Where traditional employees and their salaries weigh heavily on the operational expenses of manufacturers, robots are essentially machines that require heavy capital investment. While wages are lower in low cost countries, the access to capital is a much more level playing field for European manufacturing. With their massive fleet of nuclear power plants, France might even hold an extra card by being able to feed these machines with reliable carbon free energy.

Forget about putting humanoid robots to work in the factory! Chery is flipping the switch and putting the factories to work on building robots. Its Mornine M1 went into online sales in the month of April. This 70kg weighing and 1.67 m tall robot will be able to function about two hours after a two hour charge on a 0.7 kwh battery. Basic operations are still somewhat limited to very controlled environments like reception, product presentations or standardized training. At $41.000 per unit I'm not certain how the business case is supposed to work with an employee that needs to take a one hour break for every hour worked. And then I realize that even contemplating this point would have sounded like science fiction only 24 months ago.

Remember the images of last year's half marathon in Beijing? As mentioned in one of the previous newsletters, the whole affair was quite funny. Almost none of the "bots" ran out the race, some quite literally lost their head. The ones that did came in after a not too impressive 2 hours plus. Fast forward to this year and us humans can stop laughing. In a repeat of last year's event the fastest robots beat the human world record by nearly seven minutes!

And it's not that the organizers didn't make things challenging. The course was a mix of flats, turns, hills and narrow passages. Not every one of the 300 robot contestants was able to get to the finish line unscathed either, with some running into barricades and others arriving in a duct tape outfit to hold everything together. Still, the mind blowing progress from one year to the next shows just how spectacular the advances in control software and capability to autonomously navigate environments are. If they can run half a marathon, surely they can mow my lawn, wash the car and empty the dishwasher right?