Robotics Special: Waymo plans massive fleet expansion

Welcome back, Superhuman. Gone are the days when robots could barely walk a few steps without falling flat on their faces. Unitree just dropped a demo showing its new robot lifting a car to free someone trapped underneath — and that somehow wasn’t even the wildest part of the video. The company is even imploring people to keep a distance of at least six to ten feet from the robot.

1. Unitree’s new “guardian” robot lifts cars and fights off attackers: The robotics firm just dropped a video of its new H2-X humanoid as it disarms a knife-wielding attacker, lifts a car to free a trapped person, and pulls a pedestrian out of traffic. However, Unitree has not revealed whether these actions were autonomous or choreographed, nor provided specifications, pricing, or a release date, offering little evidence that the H2-X is ready for unpredictable real-world danger. See the remarkable footage here.

2. This Pixar-inspired robot will help you find lost items around the home: Tuesday Labs has opened $200 reservations for Voxel Series-1, a bipedal home robot expected to ship in 2028. Its cameras, articulated arms, and unusual reverse-bending legs help it navigate rooms, declutter surfaces, water plants, retrieve objects, and recall where it last saw misplaced items. The full price is expected to be around $20,000, and it won’t ship until 2028. See the unique design in action here.

3. A massive fleet expansion is reportedly in the works for Waymo: The robotaxi company is gearing up to put far more robotaxis on the road, according to exclusive coverage by Semafor. The company reportedly plans to double its 4,000-car fleet by year’s end, then reach 20,000 vehicles by the end of 2027, using $5B in fresh debt. If achieved, the scale-up would shift robotaxis from limited city pilots toward a far more substantial transportation network.

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🤝 Dropping In: Imagine visiting your parents from thousands of miles away, through a robot. Munich-based Plim Robotics has debuted a wheeled home robot that keeps people company on its own. When a relative logs in, they can see through its cameras, steer it, and talk through it, with their face shown on its visor. There’s no price or launch date yet, but robots like this could help families care for aging relatives from anywhere.

👀 Legal Troubles: Your food delivery robot might be watching more than just the sidewalk, according to two new lawsuits. Two Chicago residents have filed class actions against Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics, alleging that the robots scanned customers’ faces and hands without consent, linked the data to names and addresses, and sold it for AI training. Both companies have denied the allegations.

🧹 Operation Cleanup: Earlier this year, a collapsed sewer line near Washington D.C., spilled over 240M gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac. Now, a $9M project called PIPEON is deploying small wheeled robots that use cameras, laser mapping, and acoustic sensors to inspect aging pipes that are hard or dangerous for people to reach. If it works, it could potentially help utilities prevent costly leaks and major sewage spills.

Here are the biggest developments in the robotics space that you should know about:

“The positioning really resonated.” (With the people who wrote it)
“We know why we’re losing deals.” (CRM says “Other”)
“We need something AI can cite.” (Publishes what AI already said)

Funny until you’re the one who needs the answers.

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This $649 mushroom robot is designed to do almost nothing.

Startup OKA wants to reconnect people with nature, using a robot shaped like a mushroom. Its first device, Mori, glows in colors inspired by rain, forests, and fire, guides breathing exercises, and reacts to your outfit or what’s on TV via a built-in camera and microphones. However, it costs $849, or $649 for a limited Founder’s Edition — a premium price for a cute lamp that mostly keeps you company. See it in action here.

You can check it out here.

Figure’s robots are going the distance (literally).

Millions of social media users tuned in to watch Figure AI’s humanoid robot walk on a treadmill for nine straight days, covering 348 miles, roughly the distance from Los Angeles to San Francisco. CEO Brett Adcock says the Figure 03 has taken 1.2 million steps in a stress test designed to find where its hardware breaks, and it’s still going. See the highlights here.

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