Robotics & Automation
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Robotphoenix Sets Hong Kong's All-Time Retail Oversubscription Record at 14,891 Times Ahead of May 18 Trading Debut
The Jinan industrial-robot maker's HK$750 million IPO drew 330,000 retail subscribers and HK$564.3 billion in orders, eclipsing the previous Hong Kong record of 11,464 times set by Golden Leaf International.
Humanoid and Schaeffler Sign Binding Deal to Deploy a Four-Digit Fleet of Wheeled Humanoid Robots Across Global Factories by 2032
A May 13 deal pairs a Robot-as-a-Service deployment running through 2032 with a five-year actuator supply agreement that makes Schaeffler the preferred supplier for more than half of Humanoid's joint actuators.
Unitree Debuts the GD01, a Giant Transformable Mecha Robot That Carries Human Pilots and Switches Between Bipedal and Quadrupedal Modes
Unitree unveils the GD01, a large manned mecha that transforms between bipedal and quadrupedal modes, carries pilots in a torso cockpit, and is priced around $650,000.
Figure AI Says Its BotQ Factory Now Builds One Humanoid Per Hour, a 24x Ramp in Under 120 Days
Figure AI reports its California BotQ line scaled from one Figure 03 per day to one per hour in under 120 days, shipping over 350 robots with 80% first-pass yield.
NHTSA Opens Probe Into Uber Robotaxi Partner Avride After 16 Crashes in Four Months on Dallas Streets
Federal regulators flagged 16 crashes involving Avride's Hyundai Ioniq 5 robotaxis between December 2025 and March 2026, citing 'excessive assertiveness and insufficient capability.'
Meta Buys Assured Robot Intelligence, Doubling Down on an Android-Style Play for Humanoid Robots
Meta acquired humanoid robotics startup Assured Robot Intelligence on May 1, 2026, folding cofounders Lerrel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang into Superintelligence Labs as it tries to become the operating-system layer for the humanoid race.
Matternet Begins NHS Drone Deliveries in Central London, Bringing FAA-Certified Medical Logistics to Its First UK Hospitals
Matternet has launched commercial drone deliveries between two Central London NHS hospital campuses, marking its UK debut and the first urban deployment of an FAA Type-Certified delivery aircraft on British airspace.
Humble Exits Stealth With a Cabless Electric Hauler and a $24 Million Seed Bet on Skipping the Driver's Cab Entirely
San Francisco startup Humble unveiled the Humble Hauler, a fully autonomous, cabless Class 8 electric truck, after closing a $24 million seed round led by Eclipse to pursue dock-to-dock freight without a human cab.
At Hannover Messe 2026, Humanoids Move From Stage Demos to Real Production Lines, Wired Into SAP and NVIDIA's Stack
NVIDIA and SAP turned the German trade fair into a roll call of humanoids running real logistics and assembly tasks inside factories — HMND 01 at Siemens, AEON at BMW Leipzig — wired into enterprise software through SAP's Joule agent layer.
Sony AI's Ace Becomes the First Robot to Beat Elite Table Tennis Players in Match Play, in a Nature Study
Sony AI's Project Ace, published in Nature on April 22, 2026, is the first autonomous robot to win competitive matches against elite and professional table tennis players under official rules.
Tesla Admits Hardware 3 Cannot Support Unsupervised Full Self-Driving, Plans Micro-Factories to Retrofit Millions of Vehicles
Elon Musk confirmed on Tesla's Q1 2026 earnings call that roughly 4 million HW3 vehicles cannot run unsupervised FSD, reversing years of promises and triggering legal exposure.
CMR Surgical Kicks Off US Launch of Versius Plus, Opening a Second Front Against Intuitive Surgical's Da Vinci
After FDA 510(k) clearance in December and a 45,000-patient global milestone in March, the Cambridge-based surgical robotics company begins placing its modular, lower-cost Versius Plus system in US hospitals.