A Nio (NYSE: NIO) executive has denied that he is involved in an artificial intelligence (AI) robot dog project, after a report last night sparked widespread discussion.
A screenshot of a chat shared on Weibo today by Harry Wong, Nio’s head of smart driving products and experience, shows Xu Kang, a member of the company’s self-driving team, saying the report that he’s leading a team to build a robot dog is something non-existent.
“We’re too busy even on generating, how can we afford to raise a dog,” Xu said, according to the screenshot of the chat.
Local media outlet 21jingji reported last night that Nio had assembled a team of about 20 people to research an AI robot dog project, and that Xu is the head of the team.
Xu, a former algorithm expert at autonomous driving startup Momenta, joined Nio’s self-driving team a few years ago, according to the report.
Nio is now being more cautious than before about the new field, 21jingji’s report noted.
Compared to bipedal robots, quadrupedal robotic dogs are more stable, flexible, load-bearing, and better suited for complex terrain, the report said, adding that control systems for such products are relatively simple and don’t require nimble hands.
In the electric vehicle (EV) industry, electrification is seen as the first stage of competition, while intelligence, especially autonomous driving, is seen as the key to the next stage of competition.
With the rise of AI, vehicles that can drive autonomously and Embodied AI products, such as humanoid robots and robot dogs, are seen as sharing a lot of technology.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), which unveiled its first humanoid robot, Optimus, at its AI Day 2022 event, is seen as a key player in the humanoid robot space.
In China, Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) has gone through several iterations of its AI robots and unveiled Iron, a humanoid robot that is close to a real person, at its November 6, 2024 AI Day event.
GAC Group unveiled GoMate on December 26, calling it the third generation of its in-house developed embodied AI robot.
Late last month, Li Xiang, founder, chairman and CEO of Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI), said at an AI Talk event that the company’s future foray into humanoid robots was “100 percent in probability,” but that the time was not now.
Xpeng AI Day: Hybrid system, AI chip, flying cars, humanoid robot, and more
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