NVIDIA and Google Say Robots Hit 96%. An Independent Test Found Zero

Transcript

Transcript of the narration, generated from the video’s audio; names were checked by the newsroom.

0:00Headlines

This is Robot Frontline News for Thursday, November 12th. Here's what we're following. Google and NVIDIA say their robot brains are getting close to perfect.

An independent test says otherwise. Figure's job ads show the humans it takes to keep humanoids working. Boston Dynamics puts its Atlas humanoid on wheels.

A welding robot maker raises $300 million. Italy's Oversonic takes its humanoid on a European tour. Beijing blocks part of SoftBank's $5 billion robotics deal.

Samsung tests an electronic skin for robot hands. Ukraine says its ground robots just had their busiest month yet, and Amazon puts a price on its first security robot.

0:53AI · Robots at 95%: NVIDIA and Google raise the bar

We start with the race to build a brain for robots. At the CoRL conference in Austin, NVIDIA unveiled GR00T 2. It's a model trained mostly on video of people doing everyday work.

NVIDIA says that after just five demonstrations, a robot can pick up a new task and get it right 95% of the time. A day later, Google DeepMind answered with Gemini Robotics 2.5. In a pilot at Mercedes-Benz plants, it ran Apptronik's Apollo 2 humanoid, and DeepMind says it sorted parts with a 96% success rate.

That's a supervised pilot, not full production. And 96% still means roughly one miss every 25 cycles.

1:42AI · The independent test: zero tasks completed

So how do these models hold up outside a company demo? RoboColosseum is a new open platform that runs researchers' models on real robots and publishes the failures too. On the Unitree G1 humanoid, none of the five models it tested fully completed any of the five tasks.

Partial progress ranged from 13 to 23 percent. The takeaway. A task chosen for the lab and any task in the real world are still two very different things.

2:16US · Figure: the human work behind the humanoids

In the U.S., Figure's job listings tell a story its videos don't. About 30 of its 101 open roles are about keeping the robots running. There are night shift operators paid $40 to $45 an hour, coordinators at customer sites, and a round-the-clock data operation in São Paulo, Brazil.

Some of the ads also mention teleoperation equipment. Meanwhile, Elon Musk says Tesla will probably rent out Optimus rather than sell it. With a build cost starting at around $30,000, that's a target from an interview, not a price.

2:55US · Boston Dynamics puts Atlas on wheels

Also in the U.S., Boston Dynamics has swapped the feet on an Atlas humanoid for wheels. Each ankle now drives an off-the-shelf scooter wheel. A single custom adapter is the only new part.

The robot's learned controller, trained in simulation, needed changes to just three things. Its rewards, its command ranges, and its posture. Atlas now rolls, drifts, and jumps.

Boston Dynamics says a 360-degree spin jump worked on the first try on the real robot. The point, it says, was to push the robot's motors to their limits, and the lessons are going back into the walking Atlas. In the company's own words, a wheeled Atlas isn't a product, it's a research test bed.

3:45US · Path Robotics raises $300 million

And the money keeps flowing into factory robots. Path Robotics, which makes AI-driven welding systems, has raised $300 million at a valuation of $2.45 billion. Its customers include the shipbuilder HII, Lockheed Martin, and Saronic.

With HII, it signed a $600 million production agreement earlier this year, tied to performance. PATH also says its recurring revenue grew 17 times in 18 months. That's the company's own figure.

4:21EUROPE · Italy's Oversonic takes its humanoid on tour

In Europe, Italy's Oversonic Robotics is showing its RoBee R20 humanoid at two big tech events. At the electronica fair in Munich, the robot works at STMicroelectronics' stand through the whole exhibition day, repeating typical factory tasks. It's also at Web Summit in Lisbon, ahead of a second trip to CES.

Oversonic says RoBee R20 can work in ISO Class 6 clean rooms, the kind used to make chips. It hasn't said how many robots it has deployed.

4:57CHINA · Beijing blocks the sale of ABB Robotics in China

In China, regulators have blocked the sale of ABB Robotics' Chinese business to SoftBank. The full deal is worth about $5.4 billion. Both companies confirm the decision and say they are in close dialogue.

No official reason was given. Also from China, PrimeBOT, a brand linked to AgiBot, says it has built its 10,000th personal robot just 14 days after its 5,000th. Built, that is, not sold.

5:30JAPAN-KOREA · Samsung tests an electronic skin for robot hands

In South Korea, Samsung is testing an electronic skin for the hands of a humanoid it is developing. It's a film half a millimeter thick, made by the startup Midas H&T. It senses where an object touches the hand and how hard.

The idea is a grip firm enough to lift a tomato without crushing it. For now, it's a test, not a product. Midas H&T says it plans to start production next year.

6:00DEFENSE · Ukraine reports a record month for ground robots

On the battlefield, Ukraine's Ministry of Defence says its ground robots carried out 31,398 logistics and evacuation missions in October. That's the first month above 30,000 and more than four times January's total. These are figures from one side in the war, and they can't be independently verified.

6:25PRICES · Amazon puts a price on its first security robot

And finally, prices. Amazon's Ring is launching its first line of security robots. The Rover Cam is a wheeled patrol robot for stores and warehouses.

It costs $999 and ships in the U.S. on December 16th. The Drone Cam, a flying camera for the home, is $249, but it can't go on sale until the FCC signs off.

6:54Sources and sign-off

That's Robot Frontline News for today. You'll find every source in the description. We'll see you tomorrow.