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Tesla is facing more robot pain as JD.com starts selling a rival model.
Shares in JD.com (JD) ticked up higher today as it started selling a ‘family-friendly’ humanoid robot in China.
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Consumer Entry
The Noetix Robotic model called Bumi is on sale for $1,400 “marking the entry of humanoid robots into the consumer market.”
According to the South China Morning Post the child-sized robot went on presale earlier this week. The humanoid stands 94cm tall and weighs 12kg, according to Noetix.
It added that Bumi was intended for educational and family use. It can walk on two legs and even perform flexible dance movements.
Customers can buy Bumi through JD.com during the Singles’ Day and “Double 12” shopping festivals – which take place from October to December – or place orders via Noetix’s WeChat account.
Apparently the N2 is also fairly speedy, finishing second in the world’s first human-humanoid half marathon – quite the tongue twister for a robot – completing the race in a respectable three hours and 37 minutes.
Noetix said that achievement led to 2,500 orders for the robot.
Tesla Challenge
While American tech groups like Amazon (AMZN) and Tesla (TSLA) appear to be more focused on the commercial applications of humanoid robots, China is also looking at the retail possibilities.
Earlier this month, U.S. retail chain Walmart (WMT) temporarily featured two robots from Unitree. The G1 humanoid was listed at $21,600, about 57% more than in China, while the Go2 robot dog was priced at $2,399, compared with about $1,318 on Alibaba Group (BABA) Holding’s Taobao shopping platform.
Although the listings have since been removed from the Walmart website, their search links remain active.
The listings, offered by a third-party vendor called Futurology, were the first Chinese humanoid and quadruped robots to be sold on a major U.S. retail platform, and were seen as a blow to U.S. robot makers like Tesla and Boston Dynamics.
Another robot on another e-commerce channel risks Tesla losing further ground in the humanoid robotics race.
Tesla expects to launch Optimus 3 prototypes by the end of 2025, with mass production set to begin in 2026. Each unit is expected to cost between $20,000 and $30,000. Sales will start with businesses and then expand to consumers.
Tesla sees Optimus as a key factor in its growing ecosystem of services – see above.
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