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Chery held its 2026 Global Innovation Conference in Wuhu on Oct 20, debuting Mobao, the first consumer home-companion humanoid from its Moja robotics unit, and opened global pre-orders. Moja robots already operate in 100+ education and medical scenarios, per the company. The event also launched what Chery calls the auto industry's first vertical-domain large model and a car-grade chip designed for physical-AI world models, under its Yaoguang 2035 plan to reposition from automaker to "global intelligent technology company." Pricing and delivery dates for Mobao were not disclosed.
Why it matters: A top Chinese automaker committing to a consumer home humanoid signals the next battleground may shift from factory pilots to living rooms; pairing the robot with an in-house physical-AI chip mirrors the Tesla vertical-integration playbook.
Sources: tech.ifeng.com ithome.com k.sina.com.cn
Tags: chery product-launch china confirmed
Intel has petitioned the FCC for an exemption from its July 28 Covered List action against foreign-produced "advanced robotic devices," arguing the automated guided vehicles and wafer-handling robots critical to US semiconductor manufacturing would otherwise be cut off from updates and spares. The FCC action - covering humanoids, quadrupeds and AGVs not authorized before July 28, 2026 - blocks new foreign robot models from US equipment authorization; a separate waiver already lets existing devices receive basic software updates until Jan 1, 2029. Intel's request, reported Oct 20, is an early test of how the ban treats incumbent industrial fleets.
Why it matters: The first major waiver petition shows the FCC robotics ban colliding with US factory reality immediately; the ruling will shape whether the restriction works as an onshoring lever or an operational burden on fabs.
Sources: tomshardware.com qz.com
In a first-person essay published Oct 19, Agility co-founder and chief robot officer Jonathan Hurst detailed the engineering trade-offs behind Digit 5: the 120-plus-kg robot prioritizes certifiable safety over the graceful locomotion of its Cassie lineage - when a person approaches, it sets down its payload, sits on the floor, and cuts motor power. It lifts 23-kg bins to 1.75-m shelves for up to 20 hours a day, recharges in 9 minutes via a 240-amp dock, and switched to human-like legs because the ostrich-leg design struck the ground when squatting. Hurst calls Digit 5 "the scaling moment" for Agility (DroidHunt, Oct 16 covered the Nyobolt battery deal).
Why it matters: The most detailed public account of how safety certification - CE, UL, FCC - actually shapes humanoid hardware: a candid counterpoint to demo-driven marketing from the field's leading locomotion researcher.
Sources: spectrum.ieee.org
TechCrunch profiled Laplace Intelligence, an Ann Arbor startup founded a year ago out of the University of Michigan that uses AI agents to automatically generate adversarial edge cases - rare scenarios designed to make systems fail - for robots and autonomous vehicles, inside a post-trained version of NVIDIA's Cosmos world models grounded in real map and street data. Customers include autonomous trucking firm Bot Auto and a major Japanese automaker; the company says it is revenue-generating and modestly profitable, and is in early work with warehouse-humanoid partners. Laplace presented at TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield 200.
Why it matters: As general-purpose robots leave safety cages, their safety cases will need adversarial testing at machine speed; automated red-teaming could become a compliance layer that insurers and regulators actually trust.
Sources: techcrunch.com
Tags: laplace-intelligence safety us reported
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