Tesla Rival Xiaomi Deploys Humanoid Robot With 3 Hours Of Autonomous Operating Time At EV Assembly Plant

Xiaomi Corp (OTC:XIACY) (OTC:XIACF) has shared that it deployed humanoid robots in its EV assembly plant as the auto industry looks towards incorporating robotics into production activities.

3 Hours Of Autonomous Operations

The Chinese tech giant shared that the humanoid robots it deployed successfully achieved 3 hours of autonomous operations, placing self-tapping nuts in the die-casting workshop, CnEVPost reported on Monday, citing a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo by Xiaomi.

The robots achieved a 90.2% success rate at the task, the report said. Xiaomi is reportedly considering other applications for its robots, which incorporate a Vision-Language-Action (VLA) approach combined with reinforcement learning.

The report also cited Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, who, in a post on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, predicted that the tech company would see more humanoid robots being deployed at its production facilities in the next five years.

Robotics And Chinese Auto Makers

The news comes as more auto manufacturers are entering the robotics sector, with Xpeng Inc. (NYSE:XPEV) announcing that it was establishing a facility in Guangzhou, China, to target large-scale production of its IRON humanoid robot by the end of 2026.

Meanwhile, Xpeng also aims to produce over 1 million units of the IRON robot by the end of the decade and has touted deploying the robot in sectors like tour guiding, retail services and more.

Tesla's Optimus, Boston Dynamics' Atlas

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk also shared that the company faces its biggest competitive threat in the robotics sector from Chinese companies. Musk has been bullish on Tesla's Optimus, sharing that the robot could become the first-ever von Neumann probe and aid colonization efforts on other planets in Space.

Musk had also shared plans to establish an Optimus Academy to train the robot by using Tesla’s reality generator. The Optimus academy would help Tesla train the robots using the same technology it uses for Full Self-Driving (FSD) training.

Tesla also faces competition from Hyundai Motor-backed Boston Dynamics, which recently shared details regarding its Atlas humanoid robot. The robot, according to the company, is scheduled to be deployed in the South Korean automaker’s production facility in Georgia.

Boston Dynamics says Atlas is capable of lifting objects weighing up to 110 lbs and can function smoothly in temperature ranges from -4° to 104° F. It also boasts the capability of replicating a task learned by a single unit to the entire fleet.

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