UBTech strikes deal with China to assist at border crossings, and this isn't a dystopian nightmare at all

Just weeks after UBTech unveiled one of the most unintentionally terrifying humanoid robot videos on YouTube, the company has announced one of the Walker S2 android's first jobs, working the border crossing between China and Vietnam.

As reported by SCMP, UBTech just secured a huge contract ($37M in US dollars) with a Chinese province that shares its border with Vietnam.

The robot, which can swap its own battery out of its back in under 3 minutes, will have a full complement of duties, including assisting in everything from patrols to traveler guidance and logistics.

You may have already seen UBTech Walker S2. It was featured in the "mass production and Delivery" YouTube video that looked like it was copied straight out of the 2004 Will Smith movie, I, Robot.

In the video, a hanger reveals a virtual army of Walker S2 robots who look, move, and march in unison into waiting cargo containers. Every image is reminiscent of scenes from the film in which a trailer blocks the path of Will Smith's self-driving car, and the giant door rolls up to reveal hundreds of mass-produced humanoid robots that jump off their perch and attack. Even the robots in cargo containers remind me of other scenes from the film.

For UBTech, though, the moment was a point of pride as it wrote in the YouTube caption, "Huge milestone achieved! World’s first mass delivery of humanoid robots has completed! Hundreds of UBTECH Walker S2 have been delivered to our partners. The future of industrial automation is here. March forward to transformation!"

Now it seems that many of these ready-to-go industrial robots will be delivered, in part, to the Chinese/Vietnam border.

UBTech Walker S2 is just one of many humanoid robots in the news. There's the Time Magazine cover model Figure 03, and the 1X Neo Beta, that, while still months from mass delivery, is being advertised as a ready-to-go $20,000 home helper and companion.

While we don't know how much the UBTech Walker S2 costs, we do have some specs on the 5 ft, 7-inch tall, 154-pound bot. It can walk at up to 4mph, features a pair of dexterous hands with tactile sensors, and an onboard LLM for voice communication through its built-in microphones and speakers.

There is something vaguely dystopian about a passionless army of humanoid robots working border duties, and one can only imagine that success in China could inspire humanoid robotic companies to try and sell their robots to other border management operations.

However, since robots are not guided by feelings or prejudices, perhaps they might be more reasonable about border-crossing activities. That, though, may be wishful thinking.

What is certain is that government agencies and industries are increasingly interested in AI and automation to take on repetitive and difficult tasks.

SCMP reports that UBTech plans to deliver 500 Walker S2 robots by the end of 2025 and 10,000 by 2027.

A future where humanoid robots are at work in the home, factories, stores, the office, and at borders is no longer hard to imagine. Surely, things will turn out better than they did in I,Robot.

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