A humanoid robot aptly named Lightning made history on the streets of Beijing over the weekend, beating the human half-marathon world record by several minutes.
Dozens of robots lined up for the Beijing E-Town Robot Half Marathon on Sunday, tackling the 13-mile (21-kilometer) race separate from human runners.
Developed by Chinese smartphone company Honor, Lightning completed the half-marathon in just over 50 minutes, besting the human world record for the distance of over 57 minutes.
A Lightning humanoid robot by Honor crosses the finish line of the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing, China, April 19, 2026. Reuters/Maxim Shemetov Lightning’s creators were delighted with the result. Du Xiaodi, a development engineer at Honor, was quick to draw comparisons with other industries.
“Looking ahead, some of these technologies might be transferred to other areas,” said Du. “It’s similar to how the automotive
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