China's Unitree R1 Robot Stumbles

A video of China's premier humanoid robot, the Unitree R1, has gone viral for all the wrong reasons. In a demonstration meant to showcase its agility, the robot successfully walked across a stage, then attempted to wave and immediately fell over with the grace of a felled tree. Engineers rushed to help as the robot's legs flailed helplessly in the air. The official press release called it a "planned demonstration of the robot's emergency shutdown protocol." Online, it's being memed as a metaphor for overhyped technology tripping over its own ambitions. The company's stock dipped slightly, then recovered when they announced the next model would come with training wheels and a helmet. -- Bohiney Magazne bohiney.com