After drawing cheers from a crowd at its debut in China, a humanoid robot dressed in a black suit and pants fell face-first onto the stage.
The robot, called IRON, was developed by XPeng Motors and made its first public appearance at a shopping mall in southern China on Saturday. It had previously attracted attention online for its unusually light, catwalk-like gait, according to Chinese media reports.
In videos circulating on social media, IRON can be seen walking human-like to the center of the stage before turning to face the crowd. As it lifted its arm, the robot appeared to lose balance. Staff rushed forward to intervene, but the robot fell face-first onto the ground.
The fall drew audible gasps from the audience. The event’s host attempted to reassure the crowd, saying that robots, like humans, must “overcome setbacks on the way to a better future.”
In a post on Weibo, one of China’s largest social media platforms, XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng said on Sunday the incident reminded him of “children learning to walk.”
“After falling, they steady themselves, and the next step is to start running and keep running,” he wrote.
XPeng is a Chinese electric vehicle maker that has set its sights beyond cars, branching into flying vehicles and robotics as competition in the transport industry heats up. The company sells vehicles across Asia and Europe and is pushing into the Middle East and Africa.
He said in an internal letter in late 2024 that the EV industry will face an “elimination round” from 2025 to 2027.
The incident is one of several recent mishaps involving Chinese humanoid robots.
In April last year, multiple humanoid robots stumbled and fell while taking part in a half-marathon against human runners in Beijing.
Separately, humanoid robot by Unitree kicked an engineer in the groin during a test in China last month.
Netizens reacted quickly to the flop
The incident quickly drew widespread attention on Chinese social media. On RedNote, the topic “XPeng robot fell at its debut and was carried away” had racked up about 10 million views as of Monday.
In one widely circulated video posted on Sunday showing staff lifting the robot up, users on RedNote questioned XPeng’s ambitions beyond electric vehicles.
One RedNote user mocked the robot’s malfunction. “So what if you fall? Can’t you get up by yourself?” they wrote.
Others found humor in the mishap.
“The fall was so real, just like me almost slipping while rushing for my 8 a.m. class,” one RedNote user wrote.
“The robot is saying: Can’t I take a break when I’m tired of walking?” another joked.
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