Chinese robotics company Unitree has launched the GD01, a giant pilotable mecha robot priced at $650,000. The Hangzhou-based startup, known for producing humanoid and four-legged robots, revealed the product in a promotional video. The company confirmed to WIRED that the GD01 is a real product available for purchase.
The GD01 weighs 500 kilograms and is capable of walking, crouching, crawling, and smashing through walls. A human operator pilots the machine from an open cockpit embedded in the robot's torso. In the demonstration video, Unitree founder and CEO Wang Xingxing climbs into the machine and drives it down a city street. The robot is also shown operating without a pilot, knocking over a stack of dry-stacked cinder blocks. Unitree accompanied its social media post with a disclaimer urging users to operate the robot "in a Friendly and Safe manner."
The GD01 marks Unitree's first entry into the mecha category. The company has filed for an IPO on Shanghai's STAR Market, seeking to raise approximately $610 million. Unitree's cheapest humanoid robot, the G1, starts at around $15,000, a fraction of the cost of comparable US-made models.
