After the rise of the new force of home-made cars, AI DAY, a technical conference with a taste of the Internet, entered the automotive industry.
Prior to this, the role of car companies was often defined as integrators, and at that time, software defined cars were not yet possible, and AI was even more out of reach.
Until recent years, more and more automobile enterprises have devoted their energy to software development. The rich automobile enterprises have begun to transform towards science and technology, and even have the enthusiasm of Internet manufacturers. They want to invest in and do something hot.
For example, humanoid robots.
Just a few days ago, at the AI DAY of Xiaopeng Motors, He Xiaopeng showcased the second-generation IRON humanoid robot, which can walk cat steps and looks like a real person. It has even been questioned by many netizens whether it will be like Tesla a few years ago, pretending to be a humanoid robot with a “leather cover”.
Is there anyone hiding in the humanoid robot of Xiaopeng Motors?
The discussion about this issue went viral after the Xiaopeng Motors press conference and sparked a heated discussion across the internet. Even He Xiaopeng himself had to clarify the situation the next day
There are no Tibetans, it’s just robots.
Amidst the ongoing controversy, it is widely known that Xiaopeng Motors aims to create a female humanoid robot that can walk cat steps.
However, He Xiaopeng said that what they really want to create is actually ‘Homo sapiens’.
Why must it be a humanoid?
Those who know about Xiaopeng Motors know that it entered the robotics field after acquiring Dogotix in December 2020.
Speaking of which, many people have heard of the founder of Duoduo Robotics, who is Zhao Tongyang. After the company was acquired by Xiaopeng Motors, Zhao Tongyang also joined Xiaopeng Motors and was responsible for its robotics business.
Until the arrival of the humanoid robot wave in 2023, Zhao Tongyang resigned again to start a business and started another well-known robot company, Zhongqing Robotics.
After being acquired by Xiaopeng, Duoduo Robotics changed its name to Pengxing Intelligence and released multiple robots.
However, in the early years, Pengxing Intelligence mainly focused on the field of quadruped robots, making robot dogs and horses. The quadruped robots they made were more like toys for wealthy people.
Why weren’t humanoid robots made in those years?
The explanation given by He Xiaopeng is, “Because I think bipedal humanoid robots are not reliable and stable enough, and the brain of humanoid robots will not appear so quickly, while quadrupeds have both companionship and entertainment properties, so we were determined to make quadruped robots at the beginning
He Xiaopeng has made five generations of quadruped robots in total.
In the process of developing quadruped robots, He Xiaopeng did consider developing other forms of robots, because during this period, He Xiaopeng realized that quadruped robots do not have hands, which is a big problem.
He Xiaopeng also made an inappropriate metaphor, which roughly means:
If a person encounters a situation where they will lose their hands or feet, if they have a choice, most of them will choose to lose their feet, which proves the importance of their hands.
He Xiaopeng, who started his own business in the automobile field from the Internet field, also had a big brain hole. Based on a quadruped robot, he wanted to be a machine elephant, turning the elephant’s trunk into a manipulator, and also wanted to be a robot horse, turning the horse’s tail into a manipulator.
Later, these ideas were all rejected.
However, He Xiaopeng has long pondered another question that most people have never considered: why doesn’t a quadruped animal in nature have long hands?
And when He Xiaopeng’s quadruped robot was brought into the home environment, he discovered that such quadruped robots could not turn around because robots do not have soft bodies like animals, and turning around in place would always hit the home, which is unacceptable for humans.
That’s why He Xiaopeng ultimately decided to make a humanoid robot.
So, Xiaopeng Motors unveiled its first generation humanoid robot PX5 at the 1024 Technology Day in October 2023.
Speaking of which, the Q-version of the Xiaopeng PX5 was developed by Zhao Tongyang, who had not yet resigned at the time.
02 Three Big Models, Did Xiaopeng Create a ‘Smart Man’?
After a two-year hiatus, Xiaopeng Motors’ second-generation IRON humanoid robot finally made its debut.
Prior to this, Xiaopeng Motors also released a generation of IRON humanoid robots at the Xiaopeng AI DAY in 2024.
In 2024, Xiaopeng officially renamed its 1024 Technology Day, which has been ongoing since 2019, as Xiaopeng AI DAY. I wonder if this inspiration came from Tesla.
And the IRON humanoid robot released that year was later favored by Huang Renxun and brought to the stage of CES 2025.
At that time, no one could have imagined that the next generation of IRONs would have gender characteristics and even learn to walk cat steps, appearing on the stage of this year’s Xiaopeng AI DAY in the form of female humanoid robots.
The biggest feature of Xiaopeng Motors’ generation of humanoid robots is their “personification”, which even gives people a feeling of dreaming back to the Tesla AI DAY “leather puppet” on stage.
After watching the sliced video about this humanoid robot, I had to ask the media teachers on the front line: Is it a real humanoid robot?
Later, in order to prove the authenticity of this humanoid robot, He Xiaopeng cut off the skin and muscles of IRON’s legs at the venue the next day. He also compared this “self proving innocence” to the scene in “Let the Bullets Fly” where “putting aside the stomach can prove that only a bowl of powder was eaten”.
At the moment when the ‘barefoot’ IRON walked up on stage, the audience cheered.
As for how Xiaopeng’s robot team achieved such realistic “personification” of this generation of robots, He Xiaopeng, a male engineer, explained from the following seven technical points:
The robot team of Xiaopeng has designed a humanoid spine for this generation of robots, allowing them to perform actions such as standing, sitting, squatting, running, bending, and even touching the ground with both hands like humans;
Imitation of human muscles, Xiaopeng’s robot team has designed humanoid muscles for this generation of robots, allowing them to become slightly fatter or thinner, with different body shapes;
Imitating human skin, Xiaopeng’s robot team has designed a fully wrapped flexible skin for this generation of robots, with built-in tactile sensors;
3D curved display of the head, using a 3D curved display screen similar to Apple Vision Pro, with built-in visual sensors, fisheye cameras, millimeter wave radar, inertial navigation and other sensors to achieve functions such as listening, speaking, viewing, and expression;
Imitating human shoulders, the scapular joint has 4 degrees of freedom, which can achieve body posture changes like holding the chest and stretching the shoulders;
Imitation of human feet increases the passive freedom of the toes, which is also the key to this humanoid robot being able to walk gentle steps, even cat steps, on site;
Agile hand, Xiaopeng’s robot team has created harmonic joints with a diameter of only 16mm for this generation of robots, achieving 22 degrees of freedom for one hand.
In addition, this generation of robots also has built-in all solid state batteries that cannot be used in cars, as well as 2250TOPS computing power provided by three Turing AI chips.
More importantly, He Xiaopeng also applied the VLA and VLM models, which are homologous to Xiaopeng Motors, to this generation of humanoid robots, and specially developed the VLT model for it.
According to He Xiaopeng’s explanation, VLT is the core engine for autonomous action of robots, equivalent to the ‘slow brain’ of robots, which determines what to do next through thinking, decision-making, and task decomposition. ”
With the support of these three large models and a series of humanoid designs, Xiaopeng’s robot team aims to give IRON different body types and genders. He Xiaopeng drew an analogy between IRON and cars:
Just like buying a car allows you to choose different colors and interiors, in the future when buying a robot, you can also choose to buy a female robot with how long her hair is, what kind of clothes it can wear and what kind of work it can do when you go back
At the press conference, He Xiaopeng also referred to such robots as “intelligent humans”.
Mass production next year, but without screwing
At this event, He Xiaopeng repeatedly emphasized that IRON is still in the research stage.
Yes, even though He Xiaopeng cut open the skin of the IRON on site, proving that the IRON walking on stage is a real robot, it is still not a mass-produced model.
However, He Xiaopeng still gave a relatively clear commercial expectation on site:
The IRON released this time is the final pre research version, and after this version, there will be many capabilities for convergence;
It is expected to reach mass production capacity by the end of the first and second quarters of next year and enter the mass production stage.
As for the first landing scene of the humanoid robot, He Xiaopeng pointed out that it is definitely not going to the factory to screw the screws.
Two years ago, He Xiaopeng believed that the easiest scenario for humanoid robots to enter was to screw screws in factories, but after trying for over a year, He Xiaopeng denied this answer.
The reason he gave was:
The most difficult task for humanoid robots now is to make dexterous hands, and after humanoid robots enter the factory, the dexterous hands will be damaged in less than a month, and the cost of one dexterous hand is equivalent to the labor cost of a domestic worker for several years.
Therefore, screwing in the factory is no longer the top priority for humanoid robots, at least in China. ”
So, what was the first commercial scenario where humanoid robots entered?
The answer given by He Xiaopeng is three “guides”: tour guide, shopping guide, and search guide (front desk guide, company patrol).
Speaking of which, these three “guiding” scenarios are far from the abilities we hope humanoid robots have, and may even feel a bit disappointing.
But it has to be admitted that whether for efficiency or safety reasons, the combination of the three “guides” and emotional value may be the first key to the landing of humanoid robots.
However, even implementing applications in these simple scenarios is still not easy.
He Xiaopeng hopes that this generation of IRONs can be taught by humans through language without the need for a remote control, or trained with materials, so that they can explain new car functions to consumers, provide shopping guidance, and guide factories in the showroom of Xiaopeng Motors.
He Xiaopeng also provided an expected data:
I hope that in the future, after training, 2 people can lead 7 humanoid robots to do the work that originally required 10 people.
It is worth noting that humanoid robots have now become a leading project within Xiaopeng Motors, with the personal participation of He Xiaopeng. There are 10 teams, 20+departments, and 1000+people working to promote the mass production of IRON next year.
Let’s brainstorm again:
PepsiCo recently used a humanoid robot from Zhiyuan to shoot a group of popular advertisements. Will any lingerie brands in the future collaborate with Xiaopeng IRON to hire this female robot to shoot a group of lingerie advertisements?
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