Just weeks after UBTech unveiled one of the most unintentionally terrifying humanoid robot videos on YouTube, the company has announced one of the Walker S2 android’s first jobs, working at the border crossing between China and Vietnam.
As reported by SCMP, UBTech just secured a huge contract ($37 million in US dollars) with a Chinese province that shares its border with Vietnam.
In the video, a hanger reveals a virtual army of Walker S2 robots that see, move and march in unison into waiting cargo containers. Each image recalls scenes from the film where a trailer blocks the path of Will Smith’s self-driving car and the giant door rolls open to reveal hundreds of mass-produced humanoid robots jumping out of their seats and attacking. Even the robots in cargo containers remind me of other scenes from the movie.
For UBTech, however, the moment was a point of pride as it wrote in the YouTube caption: “A huge milestone achieved! The world’s first mass delivery of humanoid robots has been completed! Hundreds of UBTECH Walker S2 have been delivered to our partners. The future of industrial automation is here. Move forward to transformation!”
Now it seems that many of these operational industrial robots will be delivered in part to the border between China and Vietnam.
The UBTech Walker S2 is just one of many humanoid robots in the news. There is Time Magazine cover model Figure 03, and the 1X Neo Beta, which, while still months from mass delivery, is being advertised as a ready-to-go $20,000 home helper and companion.
While we don’t know how much the UBTech Walker S2 costs, we do have some specs on the 5-foot, 7-inch tall, 154-pound bot. It can walk at up to 4 mph, has a pair of dexterous hands with tactile sensors, and a built-in LLM for voice communication through its built-in microphones and speakers.
There is something vaguely dystopian about a dispassionate army of humanoid robots working on border tasks, and one can only imagine that success in China could inspire humanoid robot companies to try to sell their robots to other border management operations.
However, since robots are not governed by emotions or prejudices, they may be more sensible about cross-border activities. However, that may be wishful thinking.
What is certain is that government agencies and industries are increasingly interested in artificial intelligence and automation to take on repetitive and difficult tasks.
SCMP reports that UBTech plans to deliver 500 Walker S2 robots by the end of 2025 and 10,000 by 2027.
A future where humanoid robots are at work in the home, factories, shops, the office and at the borders is no longer difficult to imagine. Things will definitely get better than they did in Me, robot.
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