The closest thing to C-3PO could be yours – if you have $16,000
The Unitree G1 humanoid robot is fast, agile, and has a slightly spooky, faceless head. For $16,000, it’s yours.
The G1 is the most polished and finished successor to The H1 humanoid from Unitreea robot I saw waddling around like an old man at CES 2024. That bot walked slowly but stayed upright, even when Unitree’s developers kicked its stiff back. G1, on the other hand, is more agile and faster than its predecessor. It could even run away from those stairs.
In a recently released YouTube video (below), G1 rises from a prone position, walks, runs, climbs stairs, and takes punches and kicks. He then sits on a bench, rotates his arms and legs 360 degrees, and folds his 77-pound, 4-foot-tall body into a small, portable size (a developer comes along and lifts G1 above his head). He even does a little krav maga stick work, which I believe shows how he uses imitation and strengthening training to learn new skills.
While the Unitree G1 has LiDAR scanners in its head, it lacks a face. It also doesn’t come with hands, but you can buy a pair of dexterous three-fingered hands that, according to the video and the Unitree website, can be used to crack walnuts, force open a bottle of Coke, cook, and delicately solder electronics.
The specs promise a two-hour battery life, but there’s no indication that the machine can recharge itself, which is something I’d expect from even the most run-of-the-mill iRobot Roomba robot vacuum.
For all its abilities, the Unitree G1 is not intended as a home robot. The fine print in the announcement video states: “The humanoid robot has a complex structure and extremely powerful force. Users are requested to keep a sufficient safe distance between the humanoid robot and the humanoid robot. Use it with caution.”
Yes, it seems there is a flaw in that statement as it assumes it is perfectly safe to leave G1 alone with another G1, but not with your children.
The video also notes that some of the skills on display are still in development. Between that and the fact that you have to pay extra for the nimble gripping hands, it’s not clear what exactly you’d get if you had $16,000 to spare.
The good news is that Unitree has made significant progress over the H1 robot. If this pace continues, there is a good chance that the next G1 in 2025 will be cheaper, safer, and much more capable.
Maybe now is the time to start saving.