A Chinese smartphone maker's humanoid robot has set a new record in a half-marathon competition for robots in Beijing, finishing in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. This time is significantly faster than the human world record of 57 minutes recently set by Jacob Kiplimo. The winning robot was built by Honor and competed autonomously, earning it weighted scoring that gave it an advantage over other participants.
The competition saw a total of 40% of robots compete autonomously, with the remaining 60% remote controlled. Not all autonomous robots performed well, however, with one falling at the starting line and another hitting a barrier. Another Honor robot finished in 48 minutes and 19 seconds, but was deemed ineligible due to being remotely controlled.
Last year's fastest robot finished in two hours and 40 minutes, while this year's winning time is a significant improvement. The use of autonomous robots appears to have given them an edge over their remote-controlled counterparts.
The record-breaking performance has sparked some debate on social media, with one user pointing out that the comparison between human and robot running times may not be fair.
