A video that surfaced late last week from an unnamed Chinese lab has captivated the internet, capturing a teleoperation session gone comically awry with Unitree Robotics' G1 humanoid, Interesting Engineering reports. An engineer, clad in a motion-capture suit and positioned alongside the robot, performs martial arts moves. As both face the same direction, his attempted low kick sends his own leg swinging upward in a painful self-inflicted strike to the groin. Collapsing in agony, he doubles over—prompting the G1 to mirror the posture precisely, to the audible amusement of onlookers.

The clip, shared on shared on Bilibili and X, swiftly racked up millions of views across platforms, even eliciting a laughing emoji from Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Unitree clarified that the synchronized "combat" routine was enabled by a customer's custom software, not its factory programming.

This hilarious incident comes as Chinese companies like Unitree accelerate ahead of the United States in affordable humanoid platforms.

The G1, available for $13,000 to $21,500 depending on configuration, serves primarily as a research and education tool, yet its demonstrations of fluid Kung Fu sequences—high kicks, spins, and acrobatic flips—highlight remarkable progress in agility and balance. In contrast, Tesla's Optimus program has encountered setbacks, with reports indicating production delays stemming from redesigns, particularly in dexterous hands and overheating components, pushing meaningful scaling beyond 2025 targets. While Musk envisions rapid expansion in the coming years, supply-chain sources suggest ongoing refinements have tempered near-term ambitions.

Yet, don’t let recent setbacks plaguing the robotic sector fool you.

Analysts see vast potential in humanoid robots, with Morgan Stanley forecasting the humanoid sector could reach $5 trillion by 2050, including supply chains and services, with over one billion units deployed—90% in industrial and commercial roles. Adoption may accelerate in the late 2030s as costs decline and capabilities improve, according to the bank.

Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, an early OpenAI investor, has predicted a "ChatGPT-like" breakthrough in robotics within two to three years, leading to adaptable humanoids performing household tasks affordably by the 2030s.