The closest thing to C-3PO could be yours – if you have $16,000

The Unitree G1 humanoid robot is fast, agile, and has a slightly spooky, faceless head. For $16,000, it’s yours.

The G1 is the most polished and finished successor to The H1 humanoid from Unitreea robot I saw waddling around like an old man at CES 2024. That bot walked slowly but stayed upright, even when Unitree’s developers kicked its stiff back. G1, on the other hand, is more agile and faster than its predecessor. It could even run away from those stairs.

In a recently released YouTube video (below), G1 rises from a prone position, walks, runs, climbs stairs, and takes punches and kicks. He then sits on a bench, rotates his arms and legs 360 degrees, and folds his 77-pound, 4-foot-tall body into a small, portable size (a developer comes along and lifts G1 above his head). He even does a little krav maga stick work, which I believe shows how he uses imitation and strengthening training to learn new skills.

While the Unitree G1 has LiDAR scanners in its head, it lacks a face. It also doesn’t come with hands, but you can buy a pair of dexterous three-fingered hands that, according to the video and the Unitree website, can be used to crack walnuts, force open a bottle of Coke, cook, and delicately solder electronics.