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A Robot Just Beat the Human Half Marathon World Record in Beijing

Beijing held its second humanoid robot half marathon yesterday, and the results were genuinely hard to believe. The winning robot, built by Chinese smartphone maker Honor, crossed the finish line in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. The human world record for the half marathon, recently set by Jacob Kiplimo, stands at 57 minutes. A robot beat it.

To put that improvement in context; last year's winning robot in the same race finished in two hours and 40 minutes. In one year, the top finishing time dropped by almost two hours. That kind of leap in performance is not gradual progress. It is a signal that something meaningful is happening in the robotics industry at speed.

A different Honor robot actually crossed the line even faster, finishing in 48 minutes and 19 seconds, but that one was remote-controlled by a human operator. The 50 minute 26 second winner ran the entire course autonomously, navigating the 21-kilometre route through Beijing's E-Town district without any human guidance. Due to weighted scoring that rewards autonomous performance, the self-navigating robot took the top prize.

About 40% of the more than 100 competing teams ran autonomously this year, up significantly from previous editions. Not every robot had a clean race. One fell at the starting line. Another hit a barrier mid-course. But enough of them completed the full distance to make the event a legitimate showcase of how far humanoid robotics has come in a short time.

The race ran alongside a human half marathon on the same route, which added to the spectacle. Robots and people sharing the same course, with one of the robots finishing faster than any person ever has.