Li Ke, BYD's Executive Vice President, recently revealed in an interview that the company is currently dedicating all its efforts to the in-house development of humanoid robots. Li pointed out, "The core of robot competition lies in manufacturing capabilities, software, and hardware capabilities," and emphasized that automotive-related AI technology shares technical commonalities with robots. This is the first time BYD has announced its entry into the humanoid robot business.

According to the introduction, BYD's humanoid robot project is named "Yao Shun Yu," after the monarchs appearing in ancient Chinese mythology, and was officially launched in 2022 by the company's 15th Business Division. Currently, a core R&D team of approximately 4,000 people has been formed, with over 30% of the team holding doctoral degrees, covering all stages of development, including mechanical design, electrical control, algorithms, and AI.

The humanoid robots developed by this project have now evolved to their 7th generation, with a height of approximately 1.7 meters, a walking speed on two legs of 1.5 meters per second, and a rated load of 50 kilograms. They are equipped with laser radar and a 6-axis haptic recognition system, and in standardized work processes such as transportation, labeling, and inspection in factories, their work efficiency is said to reach 80% of human efficiency.

According to the plan, by 2026, BYD plans to increase the number of humanoid robots it owns internally to 20,000 units, prioritizing their introduction to replace repetitive and high-load tasks on production lines. Furthermore, in 2028, full-scale mass adoption will be implemented, and their introduction into commercial settings such as 4S stores (sales and service centers) and logistics warehouses will gradually increase. To achieve this goal, Phase 1 of the BYD Xi'an Robot Industrial Park is already operational, with an annual production capacity reaching 50,000 units. According to Li, once the technology matures, BYD's humanoid robots are planned to be sold to general consumers even in 4S stores. (Provided by CGTN Japanese)