As Western Europe engages in a costly, economically damaging war—with Germany arguably the biggest casualty—China is literally building and living in the future today. Every year, a population divided and distracted by bureaucratic gridlock and pointless gaslighting sees China pulling further ahead, leaving much of the Western world behind.

While Elon Musk dreams of mass-producing his Optimus robot as a household avatar or servant, China has launched the Unitree G1, which is available for sale, starting at just $16,000.

It’s difficult to fully grasp what the Unitree G1 can do. The field of robotics has advanced by orders of magnitude in just the past five years, with complex humanoid robots now capable of walking upright and performing basic tasks.

The Unitree G1 is AI-connected via the web, meaning it can draw on a database of information from thousands of other units to enhance its capabilities over time. Future advancements will largely depend on improvements in processor speed.

Unitree is advanced enough to perform complex Kung Fu acrobatics. While the practical utility of this for most owners remains unclear, it demonstrates just how far humanoid robotics has come—and how much further it still has to go before we reach the “C-3PO” era of truly autonomous, sentient robots.

So why is the Unitree G1 relevant to a car blog? The technology behind it—sensors, cameras, AI, and computing power—directly overlaps with current and next-generation electric vehicles, highlighting how robotics innovations are influencing the automotive industry.