Robot Lightning Sets Half-Marathon Record

0:00A humanoid robot named Lightning just smashed the half marathon record at the Beijing e-town event clocking in at 50 minutes and 26 seconds for the full 13.1 miles that's faster than the human world record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds held by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo. Designed by Chinese smartphone maker honor, this five foot five red machines stood out among over 100 robot competitors. This was the second year for the robot race and things improved big time from last year's mess where most overheated or dropped out, only six of. 21 finished with the winner taking two hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds. Rules got tweaked for autonomous or remote control and Lightning ran fully on its own smarts, dodging crashes until it bumped a barricade near the end but bounced back with a little human nudge. Humans were impressed too. The top human finisher, 29-year-old Zhao Haiji, came in at one hour, seven minutes and 47 seconds and he said the bots zip right passed him like a wish.

1:04Beijing's calling it a hugely for robotics, pushing these machines from labs to real world action. China's dominating the field, with more robots operating there than everywhere else combined and at least 80 humanoid companies versus just, 16 in the U.S. Lightning's big tech edge, joins with liquid cooling borrowed stray from oner phones, keeping it chill under pressure. As firms like Unitry sell walking, dancing bots for around $16,000, this race shows China's speed in rolling out practical humanoids, could redefine the global robotics game real quick. That's your update from California News Today, powered by AI, I'm Corey with The Story.