Robots beat human records at Beijing half-marathon

Source: TechCrunch

Overview

The winning runner at a Beijing half‑marathon for humanoid robots finished the race today in 50 minutes 26 seconds, significantly faster than the human world record of 57 minutes recently set by Jacob Kiplimo.

Comparison with Human Records

Comparing human and robot running times may seem unfair; one social‑media user observed, “my car can outrun a cheetah too.” Still, the winning time is a massive improvement over last year’s race, when the fastest robot finished in two hours 40 minutes【TechCrunch】. (Back then, I scoffed that this “would not be an impressive time for a human.”)

Robot Details

The Associated Press reports that this year’s winner was built by Chinese smartphone maker Honor【AP】. It seems the winning robot wasn’t actually the fastest, as a different Honor robot finished in 48 minutes 19 seconds. However, that robot was remote‑controlled, whereas the 50:26 robot was autonomous and won due to weighted scoring.

Participation Statistics

• About 40 % of participating robots competed autonomously.
• The remaining 60 % were remote‑controlled, according to Beijing’s E‑Town tech hub.

Not all of them performed as well as Honor’s robots; one robot fell at the starting line and another hit a barrier.