Cover image via CCTV (Instagram)
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A Chinese-built humanoid robot has smashed the world record at the recently held Beijing Half-Marathon, outpacing some of the world's top human runners
The droid named Lightning finished the 21km race in just over 50 minutes, beating the human record by seven minutes on 19 April.
Developed by smartphone giant HONOR, the android smashed the previous record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds set by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo.
Lightning was one of dozens of robots competing alongside 12,000 human participants. While the humans stayed on their path, the droids navigated a parallel course to avoid collisions.
Organisers noted that nearly half of the mechanical runners operated using autonomous navigation. However, the transition from lab to pavement was not seamless for every participant.
According to the New York Post, one robot flipped only 61m from the starting line. The machine finished the race with its upper body held together by several layers of packing tape.
Another machine crossed the finish line before veering off course and falling into a bush. One robot was even pictured lying on its side after it, too, toppled over.
Xue Qingheng, whose startup Intercity Technology Co. built a finishing bot, admitted the technology remains imperfect
"Robots today have the body of Mike Tyson but are still missing a brain like Stephen Hawking," he said.
The fastest human in the race, Zhao Haijie, finished in one hour, seven minutes, and 47 seconds. Zhao noted that the robots took the lead within the first 5km.
Zhao said: "I felt it was going quite fast. It just whooshed right past me."
Technicians followed the droids in golf carts, carrying stretchers for any hardware that was unable to finish.
