I'm Ian and I'll be your guide today.
>> Xpang, a Chinese electric car company,
is building [music] a new humanoid robot
called Iron.
>> Do you know that you're an AI?
>> Of course I do.
>> Then do you envy the real humans behind
the screen?
>> Envy them for what? I don't even need to
go to work. Haha.
>> The robot looks and moves so much like a
real person that many people online
started claiming it wasn't a robot at
all, but a human pretending to [music]
be one.
At the launch [music] event in China,
these rumors got so big that Xpang's CEO
[music] Hu Xiaoang decided to prove the
robot was real.
He powered iron [music] back on, brought
it to the front of the stage, and cut
open its leg in front [music] of the
audience.
Inside you could clearly see the
mechanical parts, not a [music] real
leg, finally shutting down the
speculation.
The company started [music] years ago
with a robot dog and it has now evolved
into a full humanoid robot. To compete
with Elon [music] Musk's Optimus robot,
Xpang is focusing on making Iron feel
friendly and huggable.
>> Tesla's going to make the first actually
useful humanoid robots. The Optimus
robots will walk among you.
>> The company added soft fake muscles and
bionic skin to make people more
comfortable touching or even hugging the
robot.
The company plans to start producing
iron in large numbers by [music] the end
of 2026 and hopes to eventually sell 1
million units a year.
>> This is why I say that humanoid robots
will be the biggest industry or the
biggest product ever, bigger than cell
phones or anything else, because
everyone's going to want one.
>> Xpang also says the robot will start
working inside its stores [music] as
early as next year.