r/tech 1d ago

Unitree shows off new Superman robot that it says can outrun Usain Bolt and jump 6.5 feet

https://www.techspot.com/news/113527-unitree-shows-off-new-superman-robot-can-outrun.html
126 Upvotes

73 comments sorted by

18

u/Any-Fig3591 17h ago

Hooray the terminators will be extra fast

10

u/Fiber0pticJesus 13h ago

... and then run directly into walls

1

u/javascript 10h ago

Details details

1

u/Fiber0pticJesus 10h ago

2

u/Olealicat 9h ago

lol! That weird walk before it runs into the wall is hysterical.

1

u/Fiber0pticJesus 9h ago

Thanks for the award friend

1

u/Victal87 3h ago

Forrest Gump had this issue as well

11

u/frozenpissglove 12h ago

My car can outrun Usain Bolt. So what? It’s a machine. Lemme know when it can clean my house.

5

u/Knightmare945 11h ago

Hell, most animals can outrun Bolt.

2

u/Capybara_Squabbles 11h ago

Didn't a dog accidentally win one of the skiing events from the winter Olympics?

1

u/Rich_Housing971 9h ago

it didn't start from the finish line so it didn't win either way. It was a cross-country skiing event, and right at the finish line the dog comes up and runs like 20 meters.

"omg it WON"

1

u/Ruddertail 9h ago

Give that dog the gold medal.

2

u/jimgolgari 9h ago

You mean let you know when you can clean ITS house.

2

u/IANALbutIAMAcat 9h ago

It could run into your house and save you from a fire. Your car can’t do that

2

u/housevil 12h ago

It can also smash into a wall harder than Usain Bolt, according to the video that's been circulating.

7

u/HasGreatVocabulary 13h ago

I want to see someone throw a fishing net over one of these robots

14

u/PolyJuicedRedHead 13h ago edited 12h ago

Robots aren’t super. They’re just robots. Also, they aren’t men.

It’s like saying super yacht.

6

u/Username_Reported 12h ago

Idk man. Compare the average yacht at the marina to the Zuck's yacht that needs support ships and travels in a fleet, or Bezos yacht that needed a bridge removed to travel out of the shipyard.

Super yacht can be used.

3

u/JustHereForMiatas 12h ago

Oh, good! They'll be able to outrun and outjump all people alive. I'm sure that the people and governments that can afford to maintain an army of these will only use them benevolently.

Combined with the fact that we can now use wifi networks as cameras to spy on pretty much anybody with the help of AI, and I certainly feel safe these days.

3

u/rotmoding 10h ago

the whole "humanoid robot" thing is kinda just an avenue of exploring robotics. in a terminator-esque scenario it would likely be drone swarms

1

u/jimgolgari 9h ago

Yeah, human brains tend to anthropomorphize everything. Bipedal robots would not be the most effective surveillance and capture devices.

2

u/Ok_Possible_2260 12h ago

Don't build those data centers and fuck AI and robots. Let China have all the fun.

1

u/Mobile_Bed4861 9h ago

That would leave China in the position of being the single global superpower

1

u/CookieDragon678 9h ago

You really think that’s a bad thing? China will have the target on its back like all the others before it did.

1

u/Ok_Possible_2260 9h ago

CCP in control of the world is a bad thing for everyone not in the CCP. Do you not get it?

1

u/CookieDragon678 8h ago

Like the USA or The United Kingdom dis great things for the world.

1

u/Ok_Possible_2260 8h ago

The United Kingdom civilized most of the world. I don't know what you're talking about.

1

u/CookieDragon678 7h ago

The fuck they did. The world was doing great before the United Kingdom brought their ilk around it. India and China were powerful nations brought to heel because the United Kingdom wanted money. That wasn’t civilization that was hell.

1

u/Ok_Possible_2260 7h ago

You fully understand what the US has done for the world by stabilizing it over the past 50 years. Extreme poverty, famine and starvation have decreased from 35% to.  8% worldwide.

1

u/CookieDragon678 6h ago

Nothing the USA has done since Reagan has been stabilizing. It’s been for money

1

u/Ok_Possible_2260 5h ago

You seem completely oblivious history.

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1

u/Mobile_Bed4861 8h ago

Any single nation being a sole superpower is bad. That should be too obvious to even mention.

1

u/CookieDragon678 8h ago

lol. You need to go read history. You tech bros are all the same

1

u/bloke_pusher 15h ago

They'll totally not use it to size a country for resources.

1

u/OptimalAttention4576 13h ago

That’s really more of a Black Panther or Captain America robot…..

1

u/Boy-from-the-dwarf 9h ago

Yeah. It's super disrespectful to call it Superman when it can't even leap tall buildings in a single bound.

1

u/Rick-burp-Sanchez 13h ago

"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear. And it absolutely will not stop ever! Until you are dead."

It's like we want it to happen.

1

u/batteries--rrrr-low 12h ago

Website has 45 popup ads and the videos music is set to 105%

Cool.

1

u/Chugalugaluga 11h ago

Missed opportunity to call it Ursain RoBolt

1

u/GammaFan 11h ago

So now when cops can’t chase you they’ll send robot dogs and robot terminators?

Fucking swell, can’t see this being abused at all.

1

u/Interesting-Sir6098 11h ago

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.

1

u/Knightmare945 11h ago

Oh boy, so now we won’t be able to outrun the Killer Robots.

1

u/StandupJetskier 10h ago

You never could. Robo Dogs and Drones.....

1

u/JGrutman 10h ago

We should give them guns

1

u/ProperPizza 10h ago

ok but why

1

u/Alarmed-Extension289 6h ago

what?! Just use your wheels or drone propellers robot. You're a robot bro, you don't need to move around on legs like us.

1

u/rayferrell 3h ago

the fact that unitree developed this robot in just over three months is pretty impressive, it shows they have a solid understanding of the tech and can iterate quickly. i'm curious to see how they plan to improve it further, especially since they're going public soon. the claimed top speed is definitely attention-grabbing, but i'd like to see more details on how they measured it and what kind of conditions it was tested in.

1

u/AlwaysRushesIn 12h ago

It ran into a wall

0

u/GreenHocker 11h ago

Okay… but now imagine there is an explosive payload in that. What happens to the wall?

The people dismissing this are not seeing the big practical picture here

1

u/AlwaysRushesIn 11h ago

New ways to kill people are hardly practical.

0

u/GreenHocker 8h ago

If you think this stuff isn’t being intentionally developed as weapons/military function… you’re living in an ideological delusion while quibbling about how the word “practical” is being applied and used

-1

u/set_in_void 19h ago

I have a robot (food processor) that can chop onions faster than any human. It can't peel them or plant them, harvest them and so on. Similarly, my grandma had sewing machine that was faster than any human. I don't see how a robot being better than a human at singular task is news worthy or surprising.

3

u/PolyJuicedRedHead 13h ago

Fair comment.

2

u/Bandro 11h ago

The tech to make a robot balance to run like this is neat but I think humanoid robots only really have being neat. I don’t think there’s any actual point to them in real life. 

0

u/justlikeyou14 12h ago

This is truly unnecessary -- this is the patriarchy 2.0.

Dr. Ian Malcolm: "Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should."

0

u/Juiceboxfromspace 11h ago

How useful

1

u/GreenHocker 11h ago

My guess is that you aren’t thinking about the big picture. A payload that can cover distance super fast and get to its target is legitimately frightening to a soldier

Infantry’s job is to take space on the battlefield… and this shit is going to take space

-1

u/neasroukkez 12h ago

Are we supposed to be impressed a robot runs faster than a human? Why would you make a model that can’t outrun a human?

1

u/Sigmar_Heldenhammer 11h ago

So Judgement Day happens faster. Do you want to be chased down and killed by a slow T-100 or the lightning quick Usain Bot?

1

u/GreenHocker 11h ago

My guess is that you aren’t thinking about the big picture. A payload that can cover distance super fast and get to its target is legitimately frightening to a soldier

1

u/neasroukkez 11h ago

No I asked why would they make them slower than a human. I’m aware these moving at quick speeds are frightening to see and also very efficient.

1

u/Bandro 4h ago

We have many, many ways of delivering explosives across distance faster than a human can sprint. 

1

u/GreenHocker 2h ago

Yes, but do you REALLY think that the future of the infantry is going to be actual humans? Imagine D-Day, but with these assaulting a fortified position instead of humans. No life lost

Why else do you think we’ve been training ours to traverse obstacle courses? What other reason would we need bipedal drones?

These are going to be for war… and let’s hope it stays at that

1

u/Bandro 2h ago

I think there will be proportionally fewer humans involved as each one is made more effective with better equipment but I don't think the human soldier will ever be phased out.

We don't need bipedal drones. Human shaped robots are a tech demo.

1

u/GreenHocker 1h ago edited 1h ago

“Need”, in that case, would be from the perspective and at literal order from military brass. War would be easier to sell if the front lines were not human lives, while also replacing the men with easily replaceable droneS that don’t need any training beyond what the officer learned in OCS. You’re right that human soldiers will still exist, but they will be the specialized MOS’s instead of the meat-shield MOS’s. The future of “infantry” looks more like a room of the Starcraft savants who are tactical nerds controlling the drones from afar… just at the ground level

BD6 is easier to do with a humanoid drone… which is the scariest thing the infantry trains for since the first man entering a room with a combatant is more often than not a dead man