Xiaomi tests humanoid robots at EV factory, plans mass deployment
Chinese tech company Xiaomi has started trialing humanoid robots at one of its car factories, with plans for mass deployment within the next five years, according to chief executive Lei Jun.
Image by Xiaomi
Chinese tech company Xiaomi has started trialing humanoid robots at one of its car factories, with plans for mass deployment within the next five years, according to chief executive Lei Jun.
In a blog post on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, Lei said that Xiaomi’s humanoid robots had “officially begun working as interns at our automotive factory.”
The announcement follows a more detailed post from the company that includes several video clips showing humanoid robots carrying tasks at the production line, such as screwing bolts and carrying boxes.
Lei acknowledged that there is still a “huge gap” between robots operating in the laboratory environment and working in a real factory, but said Xiaomi hopes to deploy “a large number” of humanoid robots within the next five years.
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“You may feel the robots still look a bit clumsy right now, but this is indeed a very meaningful beginning,” Lei said.
The robots run on a purpose-built vision-language-action model called Xiaomi-Robotics-0 and are being trained to carry out tasks autonomously, according to the company.
The Beijing-based Xiaomi has been rapidly expanding beyond its core smartphone and consumer electronics business in efforts to drive growth. The company established its electric vehicle unit in 2021 and unveiled its first humanoid robot prototype in 2022.
Humanoid robots are widely seen as the next industrial automation, with companies worldwide carrying out their own trials.
US robotics startup Figure first deployed its humanoids to a BMW facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 2024, and said that the robots contributed to the production of 30,000 cars over the trial period.
South Korean automaker Hyundai, which owns Boston Dynamics, one of the world’s leading robotics companies, said it will roll out human-like robots in its factories from 2028. In 2023, it opened a “robot-run” production facility in Singapore, where it deployed a fleet of Spot robot dogs.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Tesla has announced it was scaling back car production to accelerate robot production, with plans to convert its California factory into a manufacturing hub for Optimus robots.
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