Xiaomi Deploys Humanoids on EV Factory Floor
Xiaomi has deployed humanoid robots at its electric vehicle assembly plant, where they operate autonomously for three-hour shifts. The bots, powered by Vision-Language-Action models, are achieving 90.2% success rates on tasks like nut placement, racing Tesla's Optimus to real-world factory integration.
The humanoid is an evolution of Xiaomi's CyberOne, first revealed in August 2022. That initial prototype stood 177cm tall, weighed 52kg, and had 21 degrees of freedom, with the company's AI and mechanical capabilities being self-developed by the Xiaomi Robotics Lab. At its debut, the bipedal robot was shown to be capable of carrying 1.5kg in a single hand. This deployment places humanoids alongside a massive robotic workforce in Xiaomi's highly automated Beijing EV factory. The plant already utilizes over 700 industrial robots to assemble its SU7 vehicle, capable of producing a car every 76 seconds. This high level of automation is a key part of Xiaomi's strategy to ramp up production to a planned 300,000 units per year. The robot's operation relies on a Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model, a significant shift from traditional robotics. Instead of separate, hand-coded systems for perception, planning, and control, a VLA is a single, end-to-end AI model that takes in visual and language data to directly output robot actions. This approach, pioneered by models like Google DeepMind's RT-2, is designed to allow for more flexible and generalized task performance. The move puts Xiaomi in direct competition with Tesla's Optimus. As of January 2026, Tesla reported deploying over 1,000 of its Gen 3 humanoid robots in its factories for manufacturing tasks. Tesla has stated ambitious goals of producing millions of units annually, targeting a per-unit cost of around $20,000 to make widespread factory adoption economically viable. Other automakers are also exploring humanoids through partnerships. BMW Manufacturing has a commercial agreement with Figure AI to deploy its robots for logistics and material handling at its Spartanburg, South Carolina plant. This pilot program takes a phased approach, first identifying use cases before a broader rollout, highlighting a more cautious integration strategy. This broader trend sees humanoids moving from research labs to live production environments. Unlike traditional, single-purpose industrial robots that are caged off, these new bots are designed to eventually work in spaces built for people, using the same tools and workflows.
