A new race is brewing in the world of robotics — manufacturers promise to produce a billion humanoid robots, and at a price comparable to the cost of a car. It sounds impressive until you realize that most of these robots still can't walk up the stairs without falling, and distinguish a cat from a slipper.

Elon Musk predicts that in the future humanoid robots will cost about 20 thousand dollars as a budget car. However, he modestly keeps silent that the current version of his Optimus so far looks more like a slow-moving mannequin than a universal assistant. But who counts the details when it comes to billions?

Chinese companies like Unitree and Fourier are competing hard to create cheap two-legged machines. Their latest models are really impressive, except that they still can't open the door on their own or pick up a fallen object from the floor. But they walk beautifully on a flat surface — a real breakthrough!

The humanoid robot from the Figure company, which has learned, is especially touching... to make coffee. However, for this he needed a specially equipped kitchen and pre-arranged items. A real breakthrough in automation is that you can now wait 15 minutes for a robot to slowly and intently complete a task that a human does in two minutes.

As noted on jobtorob.com — the world's first ecosystem for hiring and employing robots will soon require entire armies of specialists who will teach these humanoids the simplest actions. After all, before a robot can replace a human, someone has to explain to him how not to fall out of the blue and confuse a hammer with a microscope.

The funniest aspect of this race is the seriousness with which manufacturers are discussing plans to produce millions of robots when their current models are struggling to meet basic tests. It seems that there is a rule in robotics: the more modest the current results, the louder the statements about future success.

Join the jobtorob.com — we will help you figure out which robots are really ready to work, and which ones are still expensive toys! Together, we will find something to do for future billions of humanoids — perhaps at least teach them not to fall at the sight of stairs.