Alex Roy

1. Tesla Optimus (Gen 3)

Still the most-watched name in humanoid robotics, even without a commercial product to point to. Tesla has converted former Model S/X production lines at Fremont toward Optimus and broken ground on a dedicated Giga Texas facility, with Elon Musk targeting eventual production in the millions of units per year. Reality has lagged the ambition badly — 2025's plan called for 5,000 units and delivered only hundreds — but Optimus remains the industry's bellwether simply because of Tesla's manufacturing scale and vertical integration.

Status: Pre-production, internal factory use only  |  Est. price: $20,000-$30,000 target, not yet public

2. Figure 03 (Figure AI)

The first general-purpose humanoid on a genuine paid commercial contract: an initial fleet of around 40 units works BMW's Spartanburg plant, billed at roughly $25 per robot-operating-hour. Figure's predecessor, the 02, helped build over 30,000 BMW X3s before being retired in favor of the 03. Figure's Helix vision-language-action model is widely seen as one of the strongest AI stacks in the field, and the company recently signed a partnership with Nscale for access to up to 100,000 Nvidia GPUs to keep training it.

Status: Commercial fleet deployment  |  Price: ~$25/robot-hour, enterprise only

3. Atlas (Boston Dynamics)

The fully electric Atlas remains the industry's technical benchmark for dynamic mobility, and it now has the deployment scale to match: Hyundai, which owns Boston Dynamics, announced plans in May 2026 to put more than 25,000 Atlas units across Hyundai and Kia plants by 2028. That's the single largest committed humanoid rollout in the industry.

Status: In production, booked out through 2026  |  Price: $140,000+ during the pilot phase

4. Digit (Agility Robotics)

Digit holds one of the field's longest continuous deployment records, working real shifts in Amazon warehouses rather than staged demonstrations. Agility's RoboFab production facility is reportedly running at capacity, and the company is expanding to multiple customers beyond Amazon. For anyone wanting proven logistics-floor performance over flashy specs, Digit remains the safe, evidence-backed choice.

Status: Commercial deployment  |  Price: Robots-as-a-service, no public list price

5. Apollo (Apptronik)

Backed by Google and Mercedes-Benz at a valuation near $5.5 billion, Apptronik's Apollo is deployed in pilots at Mercedes-Benz, GXO Logistics, and Jabil facilities. It runs on Nvidia's GR00T AI foundation, lifts around 25 kg, and uses hot-swappable four-hour battery packs to keep shifts running without long downtime.

Status: Commercial pilots  |  Price: ~$80,000/year targeted by 2027

6. Unitree G1

The best-selling humanoid on the planet, and the clearest evidence that China has won the volume race. At 127 cm tall and priced from roughly $16,000, the G1 sold around 5,500 units last year with Unitree expecting 10,000-20,000 in 2026. It's not built for heavy industrial work, but as an open, orderable developer and research platform, nothing else comes close on price.

Status: Shipping, currently backordered  |  Price: From ~$13,500-$16,000

7. Unitree H2

The full-size sibling to the G1, built for commercial and education use at roughly a third the price of Western industrial humanoids. The H2 holds records for humanoid sprint speed and dynamic balance, and ships today rather than sitting in a pilot program.

Status: Shipping  |  Price: $29,900

8. Walker S2 (UBTECH)

UBTECH's Walker S2 has moved into genuine mass production for industrial customers, targeting round-the-clock shift work rather than single-task demos. It's one of the clearest signs that China's humanoid ecosystem extends well beyond Unitree into dedicated industrial-grade hardware.

Status: Mass production  |  Price: Enterprise, not publicly listed

9. NEO (1X Technologies)

Still the only credible option built specifically for the home rather than the factory floor. At around 30 kg and roughly 165-168 cm tall, NEO is available to preorder for $20,000 outright or $499 a month, with US deliveries promised through 2026 — though none had been confirmed as of this writing. 1X says basic tasks can run autonomously while unfamiliar ones fall back to remote human supervision.

Status: Preorder, field testing  |  Price: $20,000 or $499/month

10. AgiBot A2

AgiBot rounds out the list as one of China's fastest-moving multi-vertical players, with the A2 already in mass production for service and reception roles. Alongside Unitree, AgiBot is frequently cited as furthest along among Chinese humanoid makers on both hardware maturity and commercial rollout.

Status: Mass production  |  Price: Contact sales

Quick Comparison

Honorable mentions

• Fourier GR-3 — healthcare and care-focused humanoid shipping to B2B customers from roughly $27,500.
• Kepler K2 Bumblebee — Chinese industrial humanoid in mass production at around $34,000.
• MagicLab MagicBot D1 / Gen1 — wheeled industrial and bilingual service humanoids recently showcased at IFA 2026.

The field has clearly split into archetypes rather than a single leaderboard: Atlas wins on raw mobility and deployment scale, Figure on AI sophistication, Unitree on price-to-capability, and 1X on being the only real home option. Which one is "best" now depends entirely on what job you're hiring a robot to do.

On September 7, Geely unveiled an updated version of the Panda Mini electric car amid declining demand. This version is called the Karting Edition and features a sporty design, including a front spoiler and a large rear wing on the roof. These design elements are purely decorative, as the Panda Mini has a top speed of 100 km/h. However, demand for such vehicles among young Chinese buyers is strong.

The updated Geely Panda Mini Karting Edition, powered by a CATL lithium iron phosphate battery, has hit the Chinese market with a starting price of 43,900 yuan (US$6,540), with a limited-time discount. It's an attractive three-door hatchback, 3.1 meters long, with a range of 210 km and a maximum power output of 40 hp.

Now folded into the broader Demo Days Festival tour, Electrify Expo San Francisco spans over 1 million square feet of outdoor festival space with no appointments and no sales pitch — just open access to ride, drive, and demo. General admission starts at $24.99, and kids 5 and under get in free.

Test drive EVs from the big names

Attendees can get behind the wheel of electric cars and trucks from brands including Tesla, Ford, Rivian, Lucid, Toyota, Volvo, Lexus, Chevrolet, and GMC, alongside hybrids and PHEVs. A dedicated off-road Terrain Park — new for 2026 — puts trucks, SUVs, and crossovers through a 3-4 minute guided course with hill climbs, articulation mounds, and switchbacks, included with every ticket.

E-bikes, scooters, boards, and more

Beyond four wheels, the festival's demo courses cover e-bikes, e-motorcycles, e-scooters, e-skateboards, and e-watercraft, with brands like LeMond, Riese & Müller, and VORO Motors on hand to let attendees try before they buy.

New for 2026: robots and flying cars

This year's expansion adds a brand-new Robotics Showcase featuring humanoid, home-service, cleaning, delivery, and companion robots, plus an Aerial Mobility Showcase for eVTOL and flying-car concepts. Freestyle motocross demos, a kids zone, live music, and food round out the weekend.

Charging and solar tech on display

Outside the demo courses, exhibitors including ChargePoint, Anker, Sunrun, and Pacific Gas and Electric will showcase home charging hardware and solar solutions for attendees looking beyond the vehicle itself.

Electrify Expo San Francisco runs Saturday and Sunday, 10 AM to 5 PM, at Alameda Point. Tickets and the full exhibitor list are available on the event's official site.

The AT-150 was jointly developed by SPIC, mining truck manufacturer Inner Mongolia North Hauler (NHL), and OEM-agnostic autonomous haulage specialist EACON. It combines three technologies that rarely appear together on the same vehicle: pure electric drive, bidirectional driving, and full autonomy — with EACON describing it as a genuine "mining transport robot" rather than a converted truck.

No cab, no front, no back

Removing the driver's cab entirely let engineers eliminate the traditional distinction between the front and rear of the vehicle. Paired with all-wheel steering and China's first two-way autonomous driving decision system, the AT-150 can drive in either direction through narrow work surfaces without needing to execute a U-turn — a routine bottleneck for conventional haul trucks working tight benches in an open pit.

Semi-solid-state batteries built for -30°C to 50°C

To handle the extreme swings of a northern Chinese mining climate, the AT-150 is the first truck of its tonnage class in China to use semi-solid-state power batteries. The pack supports 3.4 MW, 900V ultra-fast charging and is rated to operate reliably across a range of -30°C to 50°C. A full charge takes no more than six hours, and the truck's modular charging-and-swapping setup is designed to keep equipment deployment above 85%.

65% less energy per tonne than diesel

On-site measurements at SPIC's South pit found the AT-150 consumes 65% less energy per unit of work than a diesel truck of equivalent tonnage — while cutting CO₂ and NOx emissions that come with conventional haulage. The truck runs a closed-loop unmanned cycle covering automatic loading, autonomous driving, precise unloading, obstacle avoidance, and automatic parking, removing drivers from one of mining's harshest working environments while standardizing operation to reduce human error.

EACON frames the AT-150 as a new benchmark for "high-end, intelligent, and green" heavy transport in large open-pit mines — and with China's autonomous mining sector moving fast in 2026, it's likely to be the first of several cabless designs to reach production.

Tegtmeyer, who has spent years documenting Giga Texas and Starbase from the air, flew the site after receiving direct flight approval from Tesla. The footage shows tree removal and early earthmoving work spread across what Tegtmeyer describes as Phase 1 of a planned 10-phase build — echoing how ground clearing at Giga Texas quietly began before that project was ever formally confirmed.

The largest building in the world

Terafab is a joint venture between Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, planned roughly 130 miles east of Giga Texas near College Station. The initial phase carries a combined $16.8 billion price tag, with a fully built-out multi-phase facility projected to cost around $119 billion and cover more than 100 million square feet — about ten times the footprint of Giga Texas. When finished, it's expected to be the most advanced chip fabrication plant, and the largest building, on Earth.

Not to be confused with the ATCF

Tegtmeyer has been careful to distinguish Terafab from the smaller Advanced Technology Chip Fab (ATCF) already rising at Giga Texas itself — a separate Tesla-SpaceX development facility that forms the first stage of the companies' AI chip program. Terafab, by contrast, will be the full-scale production site, intended to reduce Tesla and SpaceX's reliance on third-party foundries for the silicon that powers Full Self-Driving, Cybercab, Optimus, and orbital compute hardware.

Tegtmeyer says this is only the beginning of regular coverage, with more aerial updates promised as clearing gives way to foundation work in the months ahead.

According to U.S. Customs Bills of Lading data compiled by trade research firm ImportGenius and reported by Forbes, Zeekr has shipped more than 3,200 units of its CM1e — known in China as the CM1e, and to Waymo riders as the Ojai — into the U.S. since 2024, with over 2,600 arriving in 2026 alone. Zeekr has no other U.S. customer, so the vehicles are widely assumed to all be headed to Waymo's fleet.

Getting around a 127.5% tariff wall

Chinese-built EVs currently face a combined 127.5% tariff in the U.S. — a 100% duty on Chinese EVs, a standard 2.5% import duty, and an additional 25% fee on "strategic" products including autos and auto parts. At the CM1e's roughly $39,000 Chinese sticker price, tariffs alone could push the landed cost close to $89,000 before any self-driving hardware is added. Most analysts had assumed the expense would cap Waymo's Zeekr fleet at under 1,000 vehicles.

Stripped down, then rebuilt in Arizona

To satisfy U.S. security rules targeting Chinese connected-vehicle technology, the Zeekrs arrive as bare "gliders" — stripped of sensors, telematics, and computing systems at Zeekr's Ningbo factory. Waymo then installs all of its proprietary autonomous driving hardware and software at its manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona. A Waymo spokesperson confirmed the setup, noting the self-driving technology itself is developed in the U.S.

Already on the road in three cities

Waymo has confirmed over 300 Ojai vans in service across early-access areas in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, up from the "more than 100" figure it gave when the model launched in late May. The Ojai rides on Waymo's sixth-generation hardware, which the company says costs roughly half as much as its previous system, and offers sliding doors and a flat floor for easier entry than the Jaguar I-Pace vehicles it's gradually supplementing.

The gap between what regular American buyers can access and what a well-funded robotaxi operator can import highlights an odd side effect of Chinese EV tariffs: the policy meant to protect U.S. automakers from cheap Chinese competition hasn't stopped that competition from reaching American streets — just American driveways.

Range Rover officially previewed the GT in July 2026, describing it as "the most technologically sophisticated" model the brand has ever built. Unlike the tall, upright SUVs that define the current lineup, the GT is a low-slung, fastback grand tourer with a coupé-like sloping roofline — closer in stance to a Polestar 4 than a traditional Range Rover.

Now, footage from YouTuber @Wilcoblok shows a heavily camouflaged prototype completing final validation testing on the Nürburgring. Even disguised, the car's sharp fastback silhouette and lower ride height are unmistakable on track.

Electric first, hybrid later

The Range Rover GT will launch as a battery-electric vehicle (BEV), with a full-hybrid (HEV) option following later in its lifecycle. It rides on JLR's new Electric Modular Architecture (EMA), the same platform earmarked for the upcoming electric Range Rover Velar. Production is set for JLR's Halewood plant in the UK.

A "reductive" cabin

Inside, Range Rover is leaning into what it calls a "reductive" design language: a single large central touchscreen replaces most physical controls, paired with a slimmer digital driver display and a concealed full-width air vent. Range Rover managing director Martin Limbert said the cabin was built around "purity, precision, and quiet modernity."

Full specifications and pricing are still under wraps, with Range Rover targeting an official debut before the end of 2026. For now, the Nürburgring footage confirms the GT's sporting ambitions are more than just a design exercise.  

Driving Impression

The headline feature isn't the zero tailpipe emissions — it's the silence. With no combustion engine rumbling beneath the chassis, guides and passengers can hold a conversation at normal volume while the vehicle is moving, and the absence of vibration means wildlife photographers get noticeably sharper handheld shots, particularly in low light. Thula markets this as letting guests hear "the chirping of birds, rustling leaves, and roaring lions" rather than an idling diesel.

Animals also appear to react differently to the ESV. Without engine noise or diesel exhaust, game reportedly stays calmer and more visible at closer range — a meaningful upgrade for both the photography experience and general guest immersion. A long-travel, four-wheel independent suspension setup keeps the ride composed over rutted bush tracks, and power is sent to all four wheels for genuine off-road capability rather than just marketing shine.

Range and Duty Cycle

At 200 km (~125 miles) per charge, the ESV's range looks unremarkable next to a typical passenger EV — but that's the wrong comparison. Game-drive vehicles don't commute; they crawl at low speed for a few hours at a time, several times a day, then park overnight at the lodge to recharge. Thula says the 200 km figure translates to roughly three full days of game drives between charges, which comfortably covers a standard lodge operating rhythm.

Thula ESV Specifications

Note: some figures (e.g., seating capacity, charge time) have varied across Thula's model generations as the vehicle moved from prototype to current production spec — confirm with Thula Solutions directly for a specific unit or model year.

Verdict

The Thula ESV is a strong case study in electrifying a niche vehicle category by designing around its actual duty cycle rather than chasing passenger-EV benchmarks. For lodges and reserves prioritizing guest experience, noise-sensitive wildlife viewing, and sustainability credentials, it's a compelling — and increasingly available — alternative to converted diesel game-viewers.

  Elon Musk's Tesla and SpaceX have committed $16.8 billion to break ground on Terafab, a colossal chip factory in Grimes County, Texas, with total costs potentially reaching $119 billion. Musk described the planned facility as "the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far." 
   The scale is staggering: more than 100 million square feet of manufacturing space is planned for the site, which would make it the equivalent of 15 U.S. Pentagons. The complex is set to exceed the combined size of China's New Century Global Center, the Pentagon, Apple Park, and the Mall of America. 
   Located in Grimes County, a rural area of about 30,000 people roughly 75 miles northwest of Houston, the plant is designed to be vertically integrated, handling manufacturing, packaging, and testing of advanced logic and memory chips under one roof. The chips will power Tesla's Optimus robots and Cybercab robotaxis, as well as SpaceX's space-based data centers. The project is expected to create at least 3,000 jobs across Grimes and neighboring Brazos County, and Intel has confirmed it will contribute to the effort. 

Worth noting: this is on top of Tesla's existing Gigafactory Texas expansion plans and separate from Musk's earlier push to incorporate "Starbase" as an actual city around SpaceX's Boca Chica launch site — so there are two distinct "small city" storylines involving Musk right now if you want me to cover the other one too.