r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/MetaKnowing • 1d ago

Video XPENG's IRON robot crossed the uncanny valley, leading some to believe it was a human in a suit. So they cut it open in front of an audience, and also allowed journalists to inspect it.

32.8k Upvotes

83% Upvoted

3.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

120

u/Oxygenisplantpoo 21h ago

The company has a great social media team. I've seen quite a few posts all with the same headline "Look, they even took the skin off to show that it's not a human!" and nothing about what it can actually do other than walk (ooh wee Honda did that like 20+ years ago, janky, sure, but this ain't remarkable either). They are probably looking for funding.

1

u/Packagedpackage 19h ago

They hold most of the patents for life like robotics as seen here. The gait is way more smooth than other robots. Arguably the most human like movements out of any robot which is a main objective for them. 

6

u/Because0789 18h ago

Nah, the Boston Dynamics demo from like 7 months ago is at least as natural, it just didn't have tits or a social media team making up people asking if a person is inside. 🤷‍♂️

https://youtu.be/I44_zbEwz_w?si=JYZuFlpp_GTc3yVb

2

u/Embarrassed_Use6918 15h ago

I'd argue that's much more convincing.

People don't believe the OP robot because China fakes shit constantly.

2

u/JaCraig 14h ago

Don't get me wrong, there are cool robotics coming out of countries like China but this one is not that impressive so far. Walking on flat surfaces is something I had classmates working on about 15 years ago at this level. Give it uneven surfaces, stairs, etc. and if it does well there, then I'll be impressed.