Xpeng, a Chinese automotive and technology company, has unveiled a new humanoid robot named IRON, which it claims is the first in the world to be fully assembled on its own production line. The robot features a fabric-covered exterior and comes in various body types and genders. Standing about 5 feet 7 inches tall (173 cm) and weighing around 143 pounds (65 kg), IRON is designed to perform a range of tasks. It has an impressive 82 degrees of freedom (DoF), meaning it can move with a high degree of flexibility, including 22 DoF in each hand. The robot can move at speeds up to 6.5 feet per second (about 2 meters per second), similar to a fast power walk. Xpeng plans to manufacture IRON using its existing facilities, though it has not yet shared specific production numbers. The company envisions the robot being used in homes for tasks like cleaning and folding laundry. It compares the potential impact of IRON to that of smartphones in the mid-2000s, predicting that the robot could become widely adopted in the coming years. IRON is described as the world’s first "high-level, general-purpose" humanoid robot. It is designed to understand and follow instructions, plan strategies, navigate spaces intelligently, avoid obstacles without trial and error, and even find and use designated charging stations when its battery is low. The robot’s advanced capabilities are attributed to its use of the same "world model" AI system found in Xpeng’s AI-powered electric vehicles and flying car prototypes. The robot’s performance is powered by three specialized AI chips known as Turing AI chips, which together provide 2,250 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of processing power. This allows IRON to run complex AI models, such as those equivalent to Meta’s Llama 3.2, without needing an internet connection. Xpeng has also integrated three different frameworks into the robot to enable autonomous operation: a system that combines vision, language, and action; a model that combines visual and text processing; and a reasoning model that helps the robot make decisions and solve problems. Xpeng plans to first deploy IRON in its showrooms and technology campuses to test new applications. It aims to begin selling the robot to commercial customers in China for tasks like customer service and guided tours by 2027, with potential expansion to other countries afterward. Meanwhile, other companies such as American firm Figure AI and Chinese manufacturer AGIBOT are already producing thousands of humanoid robots. Tesla’s Optimus robot, however, remains in development, with its release repeatedly delayed since 2022. Xpeng did not mention these competitors in its recent briefing materials.