Stumbling and Overheating, Most Humanoid Robots Fail to Finish Half Marathon in Beijing

Only six of the 21 robots in the race crossed the finish line, highlighting just how far humanoids are from keeping up with their real human counterparts.

On Saturday, about 12,000 human athletes ran in a half marathon race in Beijing, but most of the attention was on a group of other, unconventional participants: 21 humanoid robots. The event’s organizers, which included several branches of Beijing’s municipal government, claim it’s the first time humans and bipedal robots have run in the same race, though they jogged on separate tracks. Six of the robots successfully finished the course, but they were unable to keep up with the speed of the humans.