The closest thing to C-3PO can be yours if you have $16,000

The Unitree G1 humanoid robot has speed, agility and a slightly unsettling faceless head, and it can be yours for $16,000.

The G1 is the more polished and accomplished follow-up to Unitree’s humanoid H1, a robot I saw staggering around like an old man at CES 2024. That robot walked slowly, but remained upright even when Unitree’s developers kicked it in the stiff back. The G1, by contrast, is more flexible and faster than its predecessor. It might even be able to outrun that kick.

In a recently posted YouTube video (below), G1 gets up from a prone position, walks, runs, climbs stairs, and endures punches and kicks. He then sits on a couch, rotates his arms and legs 360 degrees, and bends his 34kg, 1.20m tall body down to a small, transportable size (a trainer walks over and lifts G1 above his head). He even does some krav maga stick work, which I think demonstrates how he uses imitation and reinforcement training to learn new skills.

While the Unitree G1 has LiDAR scanners built into its head, it doesn’t have a face. It also doesn’t come with hands, but you can buy a pair of three-fingered dexterous hands that can be used — at least according to Unitree’s video and website — to crack nuts, force open a bottle of Coke, cook, and delicately solder electronics.