A premapped course, a crew of handlers and a world-beating time: here’s what this Beijing half marathon reveals about how far humanoid robots have come—and how far they haven’t ...

An autonomous robot from the company Honor ran a half marathon in 50:26, beating the human record by 7 minutes.

Some robots ran the Beijing half-marathon autonomously, while others were controlled remotely, all competing on a parallel course to avoid collisions with human athletes.

A robot in China outran the human half-marathon record, though tumbles and chaos stole part of the spotlight.

A humanoid robot runs among human participants during a half marathon event in Beijing, captured by staff photographer Han ...

Last year at the Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon in Beijing the winning robot stumbled across the finish line in 2 hours and 40 minutes; much slower than a human. This past week, a C ...

In Beijing, a humanoid robot named Lightning finished a half marathon in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, beating the human world record by nearly 7 minutes.

They were trailing behind their human rivals a year ago. But on Sunday, an android outpaced the entire field to run a half-marathon faster than even the quickest human. Lightning, a running robot ...

BEIJING, China — Humanoid robot technology has greatly improved in the past year, and a race Sunday proved just how far the science has advanced. Just a year ago, robots trailed behind humans for ...

China’s humanoid robot half marathon showed real gains in speed and autonomy, even if the race still revealed clear technical limits.

Our race is run. A Chinese-built robot comfortably beat the human half-marathon world record Sunday during an annual race in Beijing — although several other humanoid participants malfunctioned and ...

Runners take pictures of a humanoid robot in the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing Sunday, April 19, 2026. (Haruna Furuhashi/Pool Photo via AP) Runners ...