Musashi humanoid demonstrates low speed car driving

The University of Tokyo’s Musashi humanoid has demonstrated driving a regular car by physically operating its steering wheel, pedals and indicators. A paper published in Advanced Intelligent Systems reports that the robot also recognized traffic signals and steered through intersections.

According to Supercar Blondie, Musashi was designed around the proportions and functions of the human body. Rather than placing autonomous driving hardware directly into the vehicle, the research examines whether a general purpose humanoid can use controls built for a human driver.

The robot operated the pedals using a dynamic body schema that treated vehicle speed as an input and output, according to the paper by Kento Kawahkarazuka, Kei Okada and Masayuki Inaba. When Musashi was first reported in 2024, however, its maximum speed was only 3 mph.

The available results support a controlled research demonstration, not a road ready robotic chauffeur. The source provides no success rate, intervention data or evidence of operation at normal traffic speeds. Daimler Truck has also filed a patent for a humanoid capable of driving a truck, but a patent does not establish that such a system is close to deployment.

Source: Supercar Blondie