Latest news with #E-Town
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
China launches ‘world's first' humanoid robot mall that operates like a car dealership
China has opened what it is calling the world's first 'Robot Mall' in Beijing. This first-of-its-kind 4S-style store is dedicated to the exclusive sale of robots to the general public. The '4S' format means the mall offers sales, service, spare parts, and surveys (customer feedback), all under one roof. This is similar in format to car dealerships in China, except dedicated to all things humanoid. According to reports, the mall will sell over 100 types of robots from up to 200 brands like Ubtech Robotics and Unitree Robotics. It is located within a four-storey building, located in Beijing's high-tech E-Town district. Units on sale vary from small consumer gadget scale robots (priced at around 2,000 yuan or $278) to large, more sophisticated multi-million-yuan humanoid robots. The mall also features some showpiece robots, including a life-size Albert Einstein humanoid (worth about $97,000). From robotic cooks to Einstein humanoid Other interesting pieces on sale include robotic dogs, chess-playing bots, dancing machines, and animatronic historical figures like emperor Qin Shi Huang, Isaac Newton, and the renowned Chinese poet Li Bai. The mall will also sell more practical robots for cooking, coffee-making, medicine dispensing, painting, basketball, obstacle courses, and more. Customers will also be served by robots at the mall's specialist robot-themed restaurant. Here, robot waiters will serve dishes cooked and prepared by robotic chefs. The mall features an entertainment area where visitors can watch robot sports like soccer and track events. Consumers will also benefit from a dedicated area of the mall for spare parts and servicing. Visitors to the 'Robot Mall' are encouraged to test and interact with many of the products on display, making the experience closer to a tech playground than a traditional showroom. The layout is designed to familiarize the public with robots as everyday companions rather than futuristic novelties, underscoring China's aim to normalize human-robot interaction in daily life. A push to showcase China's soft-power ambitions The timing, location, and heavy media coverage of the launch make it as much a showcase of China's soft-power ambitions as it is a retail venture, positioning the country as a leader not only in manufacturing robots, but also in marketing their lifestyle integration. "If robots are to enter thousands of households, relying solely on robotics companies is not enough," Wang Yifan, a store director at the mall, told Reuters, emphasizing the need for tailored solutions for consumers. According to reports, the development is part of a bigger push on the international stage for China, with the country investing heavily in AI and robotics to offset slowing economic growth and an ageing population. To this end, Beijing sanctioned more than $20 billion in subsidies last year and is planning to set up a 1 trillion yuan (~$137 billion) fund to aid artificial intelligence and robotics startups. The opening of the mall coincided with the 2025 World Robot Conference (August 8–12) and precedes the first World Humanoid Robot Games (August 14–17), to be held in the nation's capital. In the wake of China's accelerated technological aspirations, U.S. robotics companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics have urged the federal government to develop a national strategy to keep pace. Solve the daily Crossword
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Robot shopping festival launches in Beijing featuring buyer subsidies
Read more about this: China has become a major global hub of robot production, with a new one-stop robot shop opened in Beijing on August 8, hi-tech area called E-Town also hosted a robot shopping festival, where buyers can receive up to 250,000 yuan (US$34,700) in subsidies when purchasing from the country's leading manufacturers of the advanced technology. Over 100 robots from more than 40 Chinese brands will be featured at the festival.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Shopping for a robot? China's new robot store in photos
A high-tech district in the Chinese capital is opening an all-service robot store on Friday to push a national drive to develop humanoid robots. From plucking boxes off a pharmacy shelf to serving drinks from behind a bar, robots at the government-run facility showcase how far humanoid robot development has come — and how far it has to go. The goal is to help robotics companies commercialize what has been largely a research-focused endeavor to date. China has produced eye-catching shows of two-legged robots dancing in sync, but can they be put to practical use? 'With the mass production of humanoid robots, we believe that both enterprises and customers will face pain points,' said Wang Yifan, the director of the Robot Mall in Beijing E-Town, about 40 minutes southeast of downtown by car. Many of the companies have no experience in sales and marketing and there are few opportunities to display their products, he told a pack of journalists at a media preview this week. The four-story facility is dubbed a 4S store, meaning sales, service, spare parts and surveys — or collecting and analyzing customer feedback. It is the first such store in China, though other cities are building them too, Wang said. Besides those performing tasks, the robots on display include ones that play soccer or Chinese chess, as well as historical figures from scientists Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton to Li Bai, considered one of China's greatest poets. Robots, showing perhaps a humanlike tendency, are not infallible. One was designed to recognize and separate trash from dishware returned by customers at a cafe. Its hand picked up a coffee cup and swung to one side but then held the blue-green mug in the air, not putting it down on a tray. A worker intervened to reset the software. ___ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
