Just weeks after UBTech revealed one of the most unintentionally terrifying humanoid robot videos on YouTube, the company announced one of the Walker S2 android’s first jobs, working at the China-Vietnam border crossing.
As SCMP reports, UBTech has just landed a huge contract ($37 million in US dollars) with a Chinese province that shares its border with Vietnam.
In the video, a hanger reveals a virtual army of Walker S2 robots that look, move and walk in unison toward waiting cargo containers. Each frame recalls scenes from the film in which a trailer blocks the path of Will Smith’s self-driving car and the giant door rolls up to reveal hundreds of mass-produced humanoid robots leaping from their perch and attacking. Even the robots in the containers remind me of other scenes in the movie.
For UBTech, however, the moment was a point of pride as he wrote in the YouTube caption: “Huge milestone reached! The world’s first mass delivery of humanoid robots is complete! Hundreds of UBTECH Walker S2s have been delivered to our partners. The future of industrial automation is here. March towards transformation!”
It now appears that many of these ready-made industrial robots will be delivered, in part, to the Sino-Vietnamese border.
UBTech Walker S2 is just one of many humanoid robots making news. There is the Time Magazine the Figure 03 cover model and the 1X Neo Beta, which, although a few months away from mass delivery, is advertised as a $20,000 ready-to-use home aid and companion.
While we don’t know how much the UBTech Walker S2 costs, we do have some specs on the 5-foot, 7-inch tall, 154-pound robot. It can walk up to 4 mph, has a pair of dexterous hands with touch sensors, and a built-in LLM for voice communication via its built-in microphones and speakers.
There’s something vaguely dystopian about a dispassionate army of humanoid robots working the borders, and one can only imagine that success in China might inspire humanoid robot companies to try to sell their robots to other border management operations.
However, since robots are not guided by feelings or prejudices, perhaps they could be more reasonable about cross-border activities. This may be wishful thinking.
What is certain is that government agencies and industries are increasingly interested in AI and automation to accomplish repetitive and difficult tasks.
SCMP reports that UBTech plans to deliver 500 Walker S2 robots by the end of 2025 and 10,000 by 2027.
A future in which humanoid robots are at work in homes, factories, stores, offices and borders is no longer difficult to imagine. Things will surely go better than before. Me,Robot.
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