Breaking: Unitree launches Toddlerbot, puts on Superhero Jammies

Hey Robot fans,

This week we here from our old friends at Unitree who have dropped a brand new bot, and we visit Tesla’s new cyber cafes where Optimus serves popcorn!

🦸‍♂️ Unitree’s R1 - A Humanoid the size of a 6 year old

Unitree just dropped a humanoid bomb on the robotics world. Meet the R1, a 4-foot tall humanoid priced at just $5,900. Yes, you read that right. That’s only slightly more expensive than a decent e-bike. This thing is officially the cheapest humanoid robot you can actually buy.

It’s short, at about 4 feet tall, the R1 won’t be reaching the top shelf anytime soon. But at that height, it is basically the size of a 6-year-old. But the R1 never complains, never sleeps, and won’t smear peanut butter on your walls. The red accents even give it superhero pajamas vibes, like a toddler bot ready to save the day… as long as the day is “fetching me snacks.”

If you’ve been following our ongoing saga of “how do I get a robot to load my dishwasher without taking out a second mortgage?” you know Unitree has been the only company with a working buy button with a preorder step. Until now, even their entry-level humanoid G1 cost $16,000 and came with flat, sad little hands. The R1, at $5.9k, is the kind of price drop that makes us salivate.

I’ve reached out to Unitree to get more details on the ‘edu’ pricing, so stay tuned!

💸 The Price the War has Begun

Unitree has been dominating the news cycle. They are preparing to IPO in China (which looks a little different than in the US, but its the idea, they are raising a ton of money from public markets). This new bot sits at the bottom of their Humanoid lineup, but they are listening to the market (we want cheaper bots), and responding with terrific looking products.

The $5900 price point is amazing, it puts the bot only slightly more expensive than some of the open source bots.

This is good news for us, folks. It will put price pressure on the big bot manufacturers to give affordable robot helpers.

🤔 Our Take

Unitree’s bots are literally what started my whole journey, and it’s really cool to see them launch this new bot. The launch cements China’s dominance in the market for home-bots. All the US manufacturers are demoing more premium bots, so this is great for the consumer as long as we don’t see big tariff energy on China in the coming months, which is a big IF.

🎥 Video Corner

This section is where we round up the best robot vids from around the web.

Until next time.

The future is bright,
Ferol

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