Engadget
Iron made its own exit from XPENG’s new production line, though completing a working day will be a tougher test.
XPENG's latest factory arrival made its own exit. The Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer says its Iron humanoid robot walked autonomously off its newly operational production line after its assembly was complete, paving the way for mass production later this year. Chair and CEO He Xiaopeng even bestowed a staff badge on it.
Onboarding paperwork is already sorted too.
In a September 7 announcement, XPENG said that over 80 percent of the line's core processes are automated.
XPENG did not reveal the line's current output or how much testing was done before the walk, and mass production is still a year-end goal.
XPENG has before mentioned reception and guided tour responsibilities, along with sales help.
XPENG's latest announcement states that Iron has 76 degrees of freedom across its body and 21 in each hand, describing the number of independent ways it can move.
The three Turing AI chips provide up to 2,250 trillion operations per second. XPENG says this lets Iron run its AI model onboard and perform tasks without a remote operator.
In April, Figure reported that it had produced over 350 Figure 03 robots and showed a production cycle of one robot per hour.
BMW says Figure's earlier Figure 02 robot inserted sheet-metal parts for welding at its Spartanburg plant.