Honor Lightning robot shatters half-marathon record in Beijing

A Chinese smartphone maker Honor unveiled its humanoid robot Lightning, which completed the Beijing E-Town Half Marathon in 50:26 to beat the human half-marathon world record (~57 minutes). Dozens of humanoid robots competed alongside about 12,000 human runners, with roughly half using autonomous navigation while others were remote-controlled; some robots stumbled or veered into barriers. Engineers say the feat underscores China’s push in robotics and AI, with potential tech spillovers to industry, though AI software is still catching up to human-level efficiency.