WALLE

The future is closer than you imagine 🤖

[WALLE @waleexbt]

THIS HUMANOID JUST BROKE A RULE MACHINES WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO TOUCH.

At first, you think it’s just another flashy AI demo. Realistic skin, blinking eyes, exposed wiring — the usual tech spectacle. But then a hand reaches out and touches its neck.

Her eyes widen. Her mouth parts. In a split second, her face goes from totally blank to looking genuinely startled.

Honestly? That tiny moment is way more creepy than watching a robot do backflips. Your brain catches the human face way before it notices the metal underneath. Just for a second, you forget you’re looking at tech and feel like you’re watching an actual person flinch.

Sure, the hardware is right there in your face: steel, cables, sensors, mechanical joints. But the closer it gets to feeling real, the harder it is to stop your brain from falling for it.

Let’s be real for a second: the robot didn’t feel a thing. It’s just running code. But if you get goosebumps before you can remind yourself of that, does it even matter?

Future humanoids aren't just going to copy how we move.

They’re going to figure out exactly how to make us feel like they’re one of us.

[WALLE @waleexbt]

https://t.co/t1lLTyE4ky

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@model_bench Thanks,Bro )

[WALLE @waleexbt]

https://t.co/t1lLTyE4ky

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@WingGirlTrader 😎😎

[WALLE @waleexbt]

A ROBOT GOT ASKED A HOSTILE QUESTION ON CAMERA AND ANSWERED IN NINE WORDS. MOST PRODUCT TEAMS COULDN'T DO THAT IN NINE SLIDES.

"To make humans lives easier and a little more interesting."

Break down what that sentence is actually doing:

→ Covers utility (easier)
→ Covers engagement (more interesting)
→ Centers the human, not the machine
→ Delivered instantly, unscripted, to a skeptical question

That's not a soundbite. It's a mission statement that survived live contact with someone trying to trip it up — no retakes, no PR team editing the clip afterward.

Procurement teams evaluating human-robot workflows don't actually need the robot to be impressive. They need it to be explainable — to the floor worker standing next to it, to the manager who has to justify the budget line, to anyone who stops and asks why it's there at all.

Most demo reels are built to dodge that question. This one answered it live, in real time, in under ten words.

Nobody puts "can explain its own existence to a skeptic" on a spec sheet. It might be the only line that actually matters.

[WALLE @waleexbt]

https://t.co/t1lLTyE4ky

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@0xKravn Maybe )

[WALLE @waleexbt]

⚠️WHEN THE TOP OF THE MARKET DEPLOYS A HUMANOID ROBOT, IT'S EASY TO CALL IT R&D THEATER. WHEN A MID-TIER AUTOMAKER PUTS A PRICE TAG ON ONE AND SELLS IT THROUGH A CAR DEALERSHIP, THAT'S A COST SIGNAL.

At Auto China 2026 in Beijing, Chery displayed its Mornine humanoid on the show floor — not as a concept car with a robot standing next to it, but with an actual retail price: roughly 285,800 yuan, about $40,000. The plan is to sell it through Chery's existing dealership network, the same showrooms currently financing SUVs, not through a dedicated robotics storefront or a Kickstarter page.

Not BYD. Not XPeng. Chery — a volume automaker known for affordable cars, not moonshot R&D or nine-figure marketing budgets.

Compare that to the headlines everyone actually saw this year. XPeng renamed itself entirely around "embodied AI," with its IRON robot already in small-batch trial production at a dedicated Guangzhou factory, mass production targeted for the end of 2026, and a goal of over 1,000 units a month by year-end. BYD confirmed a four-year secret humanoid program and plans to unveil a physical prototype in August at its "Di Space" venues, with dealership distribution of its own down the line.

Li Auto restructured its entire intelligent technology division in February around a humanoid project codenamed "Nexus," backing it with roughly $1.8 billion in 2026 R&D spend. Those are flagship-level bets — the kind of moves a company can fund for years without the unit economics needing to work yet.

Chery isn't in that category. Automotive margins across the industry have reportedly been squeezed to a decade-low 4.1%, and Chery is leaning on the technological overlap — over 70%, by some estimates — between smart vehicle supply chains and humanoid robotics to open what the industry is now calling a second growth curve.

When a company operating on margins that thin prices a humanoid for retail and slots it into dealership infrastructure built for financing car loans, that's not a moonshot demo. That's a company that ran the actual unit economics and found they already work.

Nearly 20 global automakers are now in this race, and 2026 is being called the critical window for moving from proof-of-concept to scaled deployment. The story was never just which brand builds the most impressive robot on a stage.

It's which one gets the cost down far enough to hand a humanoid to a dealership that's never sold anything more complicated than an extended warranty — and Chery just answered that question with a price tag, not a press release.

[WALLE @waleexbt]

https://t.co/t1lLTyE4ky

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@dorienntje @royschierbeek ;)

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@dorienntje @royschierbeek donderdag naar grunn in de auto?? :p

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@anouknibourg ik was in de xenos vandaag.. We moeten nog cupcakes maken ! :p ALARM!

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@dorienntje succes vandaaaag! Je ziet dit pas als je weer thuis ben waarschijnlijk, maar toch! Denk aan je!

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@dorienntje @anouknibourg Goed ! :D Zo klaar.. En met me nichtje was het heel gezellig! :)

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@anouknibourg @dorienntje hoe waren de kibbelingen poeppies ?!

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@meertn JWZ.. haha

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@meertn school heeft ook geen zin in jou.

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@machteldburgler hoe gaat het met je poppie ? Binnenkort filmpie doen ofzo?

[WALLE @waleexbt]

@__carolienn wiiie?