Ubtech puts a full-size companion android on sale in China

Ubtech's U1 line ships as a full-size companion android, but early demos were slow and much launch demand came from institutions.

Chinese company Ubtech has begun selling the Uworld U1, a line of full-size humanoid companion robots aimed at the home. It comes in three versions: the semi-torso U1 Lite, the full-body U1 Pro, and the higher-dynamic U1 Ultra. The male build stands 183 cm and weighs 42 kg; the female build is 163 cm and 35 kg. Prices run from 119,800 to 990,000 RMB, roughly US$17,655 to US$145,717. Ubtech says it took more than 13,000 orders on launch day.

The hardware is dense: 88 servo joints, silicone skin with pores and wrinkles, blinking eyes, and a claimed 300 micro-expressions. Ubtech says the robots can reproduce up to 90% of human movements with speech-to-lip synchronization under 20 milliseconds. They need recharging every two to four hours.

Mass-produced humanoids are the long-promised path to general-purpose labor that gets cheaper as volume grows, and, eventually, to machines that can help with care work. Notably, Ubtech pulled back its own claims: early marketing said the robots could mind elderly people and toddlers, clean, and walk dogs, but the official launch narrowed the promise to companionship.

The caveats are heavy. In practice the robots reportedly take tens of seconds to answer and moved slowly and stiffly at the launch. Many launch-day orders were attributed to demonstration halls and government procurement rather than private buyers, and the advertisement that made the caregiving claims was itself generated by AI. The product ships; the capability it implies does not yet.

Source: New Atlas