“A previous Beijing humanoid robot marathon saw several competitors emit smoke and fail to complete the course.”
China is hosting robot competitions in soccer, track and field, table tennis, and medicine sorting. 280 teams from 16 countries. The Chinese government has poured over $20 billion into robotics subsidies in the past year with another $137 billion planned. A previous robot marathon ended with competitors catching fire. The ambition is real. The execution is still catching up. But throwing this much money at a problem tends to produce results eventually.