New robots, new capabilities. Tracking what's coming for the workforce.
Robotics Autonomous driving money went to robotaxis and long-haul rigs. Gatik took the leg between the distribution centre and the store, the dullest and most repeatable run on the map.
Robotics XPeng named a valuation for its humanoid business on August 24, alongside Q2 earnings. The number to read isn't $6.3B. It's where the money sends IRON to work: the showroom floor, not the plant floor.
Robotics Two robots beat the human world record over 100 meters in Beijing on August 23. One veered into a padded barrier past the line, the other fell and was carried off on a stretcher. The rule worth reading: the record events are the only two excused from running autonomously.
Robotics The games opened August 22 and moved the scenario events into a working hotel and a real apartment. The household contest is scored out of 300: living room 75, folded clothes 100, laundry 125. One human intervention and the entire run settles as remote control, weighted 0.5 against 1.
Robotics A CAICT report surfaced on August 21 puts more than 70 embodied-AI training grounds in operation across China by the end of June, with 46 more under construction or planned. Industrial manufacturing appears in 86% of them.
Robotics The 2026 Humanoid Robot Industry Development Report landed on the World Robot Conference main stage on August 20 with a headline figure: more than 40,000 units shipped in China in the first half, 97% of the global total. Elsewhere that same 40,000 is called production, not shipments.
Robotics The Nevada Transportation Authority approved three robotaxi permits unanimously on August 20, opening Clark County to as many as 8,000 driverless vehicles over 12 months. Tesla's own Cybercab chief engineer told the hearing that 5,000 has always been a ceiling and 2,500 would satisfy him.
Robotics Amazon named a year-end target on August 19: Prime Air in nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns, a sixfold expansion. The line to file away sits further down the page, where the company puts a share on what a drone can carry.
Robotics The 2026 World Robot Conference opened August 19 in Beijing's Yizhuang district. The figure disclosed alongside it: Chinese robotics firms above scale booked more than 90B yuan in revenue from January through May, up 26.9%. On the floor, one welding system is already running near-unmanned inside a Korean shipyard.
Robotics Unitree filed its listing notice on August 18 and rings the bell on August 19 at a post-offer valuation of 61B yuan. The number worth reading is not the multiple. It is the 18,000 robots already built, and where they currently go to work.
Robotics Xiaomi's Q2 results on August 18 listed three named workstations in its own EV plant and the humanoid's success rate at each. On the same call, president Lu Weibing said the robot will not be sold as a standalone product.
Robotics We covered SoftBank's talks to buy Gravis Robotics on July 28. The answer came back different: not a purchase, an investment. A record $200M Series A for construction robotics, and the first clear look at what Gravis actually sells.