Now our Intropid China Reporter, Caiwei Chen, identified a new trend that takes place in the Chinese Technical Scene: companies that were dominant in electric vehicles are betting large in translation in the development of humanoid robots. I talked to her about what she learned and what could mean for Trump policies and the rest of the world.
James: Before we talk about robots, let’s talk about Deepseek. Frenzy for AI model has reached a few weeks ago. What do you hear from other Chinese and companies? How do they react?
Caiwei: I think the other Chinese and companies are looking to understand why they did not build a model as deep as Deepseek, despite the approach to as much funding and resources. Deepseek success caused self-expanding with styles management and restored trust in Chinese engineering talent. There is also a powerful enthusiasm for building various applications at the top of Deepseek models.
Your story looks at the manufacturers of electric vehicles in China who start working on humanoid robots, but I want to ask for a crazy stat. In China, 53% of vehicles sold or electrical or hybrid were sold, compared to 8% in the USA. What does that explain?
The price is a huge factor – there are countless EV brands competing at different prices, making them both favorable and quality. State incentives also play a big role. In Beijing, for example, the trading in the old car for EV gets you 10,000 RMB (about $ 1,500), and that the subsidy has recently doubled. In addition, finding public charging and battery replacement infrastructure is much less hassle than in the US.
Open your story, notice that the recent New Year Gala China, watched by billions of people throw Humanoid robots, dancing and tying wipes. We have covered How sometimes Human videos can be wrong. What did you mean?
I would say that I am relatively impressed – robots showed good agility and synchronization with music, although their movements were simpler than human dancers. One trick that should impress the most is the part where they will look up with one finger, throwing it into the air, then catches it perfectly. This is the signature of Yangko dance and that he was performing him once as a child, I can confirm how hard the trick is even for human! In Chinese internet there were some skepticism about how it was achieved and whether they used additional reinforcements such as magnets or row to attach a handkerchief, and after watching the footage too many times, I prone to agree.
