China Exhibits Autonomous Innovation With Fastest Humanoid Robot And Flying Car

Over the last couple of weeks, Elon Must dominated headlines, at least as far as technology-related news goes.

This included announcements of advancements made with SpaceX and the fifth Starship test flight, a strange revelation about interstellar travel and Tesla’s We, Robot event, which debuted the Cybercab, Robovan and the Tesla Bot AKA Optimus Gen 2.

Of course, it wasn’t revealed until the next day that humans were remotely assisting the robots and it wasn’t the robot itself that was fully autonomous.

Still, the innovation and progress being made around autonomous humanoid robots in the last few years is pretty impressive.

To that note, Chinese company Robot Era recently revealed its own powerful and capable STAR1, a bipedal humanoid robot that’s made a name for itself by earning the title of “fastest in the world”.

STAR1 was able to run at a top speed of 8 miles per hour or 3.6 meters per second to be exact, which allowed it to beat previous humanoid robots. The previous record was held by Unitree's H1 robot, which hit a speed of 7.4 mph (3.3 m/s) in March 2024.

Although this feat wasn’t one that it achieved on its own – it had the help of additional footwear on its “feet”! (Is that considered cheating?)

Standing at 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 143 pounds or 65 kilograms, this humanoid robot is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and high-torque motors and was made to compete with another STAR1 robot that didn’t sport sneakers.

The study and its results were conveyed through a video put out on Robot Era’s YouTube channel.

The experiment conducted by a research team aimed to determine if the robot could perform better and run faster with shoes on – and it did!

The study included having the two robots run across diverse kinds of terrains in the Gobi Desert in northwestern China, which included grassland, gravel, paved roads and good ol’ earth, where the robot managed to sustain its top speed for 34 minutes.


Ahead of this record-breaking achievement in autonomous innovation, another Chinese company revealed a successful test flight of its autonomous flying car.

Automobile manufacturer Chery unveiled its new flying car prototype at its latest Chery Global Innovation Conference, which was held in Anhui, China.

Currently named ‘Land and Air Vehicle’, the prototype offers full autonomous driving capabilities – a characteristic it has to possess as the vehicle comes without a steering wheel or accelerator pedal.

As per the company, the vehicle has already successfully completed a test flight spanning 50 miles or about 880 kilometers.

The car can take off and land vertically, making it an eVTOL. It’s designed to carry two people, has a flying altitude of below 1 kilometer, a flight time of around 40 minutes and can reach speeds of 120 kilometers per hour.

The vehicle includes three parts – the aircraft, the cockpit and the chassis and can switch between autonomous flying and land driving.

Chery also revealed an advanced all solid state battery, while also launching a new battery brand named Kunpeng. Its launch will see three series of batteries capable of 6C charging, which include square lithium iron phosphate, square ternary and large cylindrical ternary.

Kunpeng’s battery series is expected to be integrated into its NEVs (new energy vehicles) in the next few months.


On a side note, Chery also offers a personal assistant robot, which is a bipedal robot driven by AI that’s called Mornine. It has a highly biomimetic design to mimic the shape and movement of a human.

What do you think of these autonomous innovations?

Let us know in the comments below!