At Haidilao, Beijing's flagship hotpot restaurant that once symbolized China's vision of automation, human staff continue to deliver noodles to customers' tables despite the country's rapid progress in robotics. According to observations shared by McDonell, even at China's most prominent robot exhibition, the vast majority of table deliveries are still carried out by people rather than humanoid robots.
China remains the world's leading manufacturer of humanoid robots, accounting for 90 percent of global humanoid robot production. McDonell also noted that China produces 75 percent of all delivery robots worldwide and manufactures approximately 400 different types of robots. Despite these achievements, most of the humanoid robots attracting public attention are not fully autonomous and instead rely on remote human operators.
One example is the One X Neo, the five-foot-tall humanoid robot that gained widespread attention last year for its ability to unload dishwashers and water plants. Technology observer Tidy pointed out that the robot's impressive capabilities depend on a human operator wearing a virtual reality headset and controlling the machine remotely rather than the robot making independent decisions.
During a visit to Silicon Valley to examine the latest home robotics technologies, Tidy found that this approach is common across several companies. Many robots marketed as advanced household assistants are actually teleoperated machines enclosed within humanoid bodies instead of being fully autonomous systems. This operational model is expected to remain important for businesses deploying such robots in 2026, as human operators will remotely monitor and control the machines through cameras installed inside customers' homes.
Among the companies evaluated, Tidy identified Sunday AI's Memo robot as a notable exception due to its innovative training process. The company trains its artificial intelligence by paying people to wear camera-equipped headsets and specially designed sensor gloves that replicate Memo's hand movements. According to Tidy, the gloves capture physical movements through embedded sensors while the cameras record the operator's visual perspective, allowing the robot to match what it sees with the precise motions performed by the human trainer.
McDonell also observed that Chinese consumers have shown a strong willingness to adopt emerging robotic technologies, even when their practical value remains limited. He said many people are prepared to purchase robots that may be only partially useful simply for the novelty of owning the technology.
The contrast between highly specialized industrial automation and consumer humanoid robots is also evident in Tesla's factory in Shanghai. Although robotic systems perform all manufacturing tasks at the facility, each machine is designed to carry out only one specific function. This suggests that the near future of robotics is likely to be shaped by highly specialized, single-purpose machines, including laundry-folding robots, coffee-making robots, window-cleaning robots, and other task-specific devices, rather than the universal household assistant often portrayed in futuristic visions.
The growing contrast between viral demonstrations and practical deployment highlights that while China leads the world in humanoid robot manufacturing, the industry's immediate future remains centered on specialized automation and human-assisted robotics rather than fully autonomous humanoid assistants.
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