Beijing's second annual humanoid robot half-marathon delivered far smoother results than its inaugural event. Honor, better known for its smartphones, dominated the competition with its red-clad robot named Lightning, which finished the 13-mile course in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. This impressive time surpassed the human record recently set by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo.

More than 100 robots competed in this year's event, marking a significant increase from the 21 participants in 2024. Honor swept all podium positions, with the crucial caveat that their robots navigated autonomously according to state broadcaster CCTV. This represents massive progress from last year's event, where the fastest robot, Tiangong Ultra, took two hours and 40 minutes while receiving human assistance.

Despite improvements, the event wasn't flawless. The BBC reported that only about 40 percent of robots competed autonomously this year, with the remainder remote-controlled. Even Honor's robots experienced crashes during the race. The event highlighted China's rapid advancement in robotics technology while demonstrating the field still has considerable room for improvement before achieving fully autonomous performance.