Robotics Special: Zoox robotaxis finally hit the road

Welcome back, Superhuman. What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas. Amazon’s Zoox has finally entered the robotaxi race with a highly-anticipated launch on the Vegas Strip, offering free rides to passengers through parts of the city. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has unveiled moonshot plans for Tesla’s upcoming Optimus V3 humanoid robot, but the company may still have a long way to go.

WHAT’S NEXT

The most important news and breakthroughs in robotics this week

1. Unitree swings for the fences with blockbuster IPO plans: The Chinese robotics firm is reportedly gunning for a $7B IPO valuation on Shanghai's STAR Market, in what could be China's biggest onshore tech listing in years. The company has attracted major backers, including Alibaba and Tencent, plus a rare personal meeting between founder Wang Xingxing and President Xi Jinping. With annual revenue topping $140M, Unitree is betting investors are ready to buy into humanoid robotics as more than just viral content.

2. Amazon’s Zoox finally hits the road in Las Vegas: The startup just rolled out its long-awaited robotaxi service on the Las Vegas Strip, featuring a radical design where passengers face each other instead of sitting in a traditional car layout. While Waymo still dominates the market, Zoox is betting that building purpose-made robotaxis from scratch (rather than retrofitting regular cars) will win the autonomous vehicle endgame. The service is currently free through the Zoox app. See it in action here.

3. Elon Musk reveals Tesla's grand plan for Optimus v3: At the All-In Summit this week, Elon Musk revealed that Tesla is putting the finishing touches on Optimus v3, which he claims will pack "manual dexterity comparable to a human". At scale, Musk believes Tesla can produce the robots for around $20K each, with the AI chip alone making up about $5K-6K of that cost. Musk admitted he spends more mental energy on Optimus than any other project, calling it potentially "the biggest product ever".

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ROBOTS IN ACTION

How robots are transforming the world around us

🏓 Game, Set, Robot: UC Berkeley researchers have created a robot that can play ping pong, sustaining a rally of 106 consecutive shots with moves that look eerily human-like. Trained on human motion data and reinforcement learning, the bot can react to balls traveling 11 mph in under a second while maintaining perfect balance. Watch it in action here.

🫀 In a Heartbeat: UK researchers have tested drones that drop life-saving defibrillators directly to cardiac arrest victims, potentially cutting response times for the 40,000 annual emergencies where only 10% of people currently survive. Though some still struggled to use the defibrillators when they arrived, the concept could revolutionize emergency response by getting critical equipment to patients before ambulances even arrive.

🧑‍⚕️ In Focus: Surgeons in Chile performed the world's first gallbladder surgery using a robotic camera that autonomously tracks and follows surgical instruments, providing surgeons with uninterrupted, stable views throughout the procedure. The system could potentially slash operating room staffing needs, cut costs, and improve outcomes by letting surgeons focus on the procedure rather than managing their view.

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

Everything else you need to know this week

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

• Alibaba has co-led a $140M funding round in Chinese robotics startup X Square Robot — part of its broader AI infrastructure investment strategy.

• Lyft has partnered up with May Mobility to launch a small fleet of robotaxis with safety operators as part of its first commercial robotaxi service in Atlanta.

• Alibaba-backed Ant Group has unveiled its first humanoid robot R1, which autonomously plans complex service tasks like cooking and healthcare assistance.

• Businesses that rely on Chinese drone maker DJI are facing potential disruption as lawmakers push to ban the company's products over security concerns.

• Physical Intelligence is reportedly in talks to raise funding at a $5B valuation to develop π0, an AI model that would enable robots to perform diverse tasks.

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ROBOT OF THE WEEK

A robot that caught our eye this week

One small step for man, one giant leap for robo-vacuums.

Climbing stairs was a major bottleneck for robot vacuums. Now, Eufy has unveiled the MarsWalker, which uses four robotic arms and tank-like treads to ferry the robot vacuum between floors. It tackles straight, L-shaped, and U-shaped staircases while building a 3D map of your home.

You can watch it in action here.

ROBO REEL

Watch: Tesla’s latest Optimus demo fails to impress X users

New look, same old problems.

Tesla's Optimus robot just had its most awkward public outing yet. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff took to X to post a video of the humanoid, and X users weren’t happy with what they saw. "This might be the worst humanoid demo I have seen" one commenter noted. The robot appeared to stumble through simple conversations, pausing mid-sentence before Elon Musk stepped in about giving it "more room".

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Zain and the Superhuman AI team