Robot beats human records, wins Beijing half-marathon in 50 minutes

At a humanoid robot half-marathon in Beijing, robots competed against each other  and some even performed faster than human world records.

The winning autonomous robot finished the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, which is faster than the human half-marathon world record of about 57 minutes set by Jacob Kiplimo.

However, another robot from the same company (Honor) finished even faster at 48 minutes and 19 seconds, but it was remotely controlled, so it didn’t count as the official winner.

About 40% of the robots ran on their own, while the rest were controlled by humans. Not all robots performed well  some fell at the start or crashed into barriers.

Compared to last year, when the fastest robot took over two hours, this year’s performance shows major improvement in robotics.

The event highlights how quickly humanoid robots are advancing, even if comparing them directly to human runners is still debated.