UBTech lines up September deliveries for U1 home humanoids

UBTech Robotics says its U1 consumer humanoids have reached 13,361 orders, with first deliveries scheduled to begin on September 16, according to the South China Morning Post.

The Shenzhen based company opened presales in early June and reported the order total as of June 30. The U1 line includes three models, Lite, Pro and Ultra, spanning partial body units to full size humanoids. Prices run from 119,800 yuan to 990,000 yuan.

Companionship before domestic work

The U1 is being sold primarily as a companion robot, not as a household labor machine. SCMP reported that one Beijing investor, identified only as Song, paid 159,800 yuan (US$23,680) for a female version of the U1 Pro while understanding that it would not cook meals or scrub floors.

“The happiest part is often the waiting,” Song told the outlet, describing the purchase as a way to take part in an early consumer humanoid rollout.

UBTech says the robots can show facial expressions, handle voice interaction and conduct AI driven conversations. Those are consumer facing functions, but they sit well short of the manipulation and autonomy needed for useful domestic chores in an unstructured home.

A narrow first use case

The order figure is the hardest commercial data point in the report, and it will draw attention because home humanoids remain a thin market compared with industrial robots. Still, orders are not the same as deployed robots, and the source does not describe how many units will ship in the first delivery wave.

For humanoid developers, the U1 launch is a test of whether buyers will pay for presence, interaction and novelty before household utility is ready. For now, UBTech’s first home customers are buying a companion robot with a humanoid form, not a general purpose domestic worker.

Source: scmp.com