Chinese company Unitree has made a name for itself with robots that dance, practice kung fu, and wade through snow. And now it has unveiled the GD01, a half-ton giant mecha robot with room for a human pilot inside. It costs $650,000, and Unitree describes it as a "civilian vehicle."
To understand what the GD01 represents, we first need to look at the company behind it. Unitree Robotics is based in Hangzhou, China, and in just a few years has become one of the world's most prominent robotics companies. Analytics firm Omdia estimates that in 2025, Chinese companies accounted for nearly 90 percent of global humanoid robot sales. Unitree alone delivered more than 5,500 humanoid robots that year. For comparison, American companies such as Tesla, Figure AI, and Agility Robotics each delivered around 150 units.
Unitree has succeeded in part because its robots are exceptionally affordable. The basic G1 humanoid costs approximately $15,000, while comparable American machines are ten times more expensive. The key is its control over the Chinese supply chain and hardware that researchers can easily adapt to their own needs. Among other things, the company is preparing to go public.
Unitree robots have already danced at the Spring Festival, performed coordinated martial arts transmitted wirelessly between multiple machines at once, and one of them even appeared in the new season of Jackass.
GD01: A robot skeleton you can sit inside
Company founder and CEO Wang Xingxing recorded a video in which he first holds the robot's hand and then climbs inside it. Straight into the open cockpit in the middle of the giant metal body. The GD01 stands approximately 2.7 meters tall and weighs more than 500 kilograms with the pilot included. Unitree confirmed to Wired that it is a real product for sale, not a joke.
The robot walks on two legs at the pace of a leisurely stroll. When its height gets in the way, it switches to quadrupedal mode and crawls like a gorilla. To do this, it bends backward at the hips by a full 90 degrees, so if you are sitting inside facing forward, you end up with your knees pointing toward the ceiling. Unitree elegantly sidestepped this problem in the video by seating the pilot inside the robot only after the transformation was complete.
In the video, the GD01 also knocks down a stack of bricks with a single blow. The bricks are clearly not held together with mortar, but it still looks impressive.
What immediately stands out
Take a close look at the footage and the questions start piling up. The cockpit looks like a cramped, ergonomically unappealing seat. There is no control panel or display in front of the pilot. Old tires are stretched over the metal tubes—yes, they look like cut-up bicycle tires. Cables stick out loosely. The paint is scratched. And how do you actually control the whole thing?
Unitree has not yet revealed what the GD01 can do besides demolishing unreinforced brick walls. Can it carry loads? Can it handle stairs or slopes? How long does its battery last? The company admits that it welcomes suggestions from the public and intends to continuously improve the machine. That in itself says quite a lot about the project's current state. Perhaps this is merely an exorbitantly expensive public beta for a much better next generation. A bit like the first MacBook Air: expensive, imperfect, but a harbinger of something bigger.
$650,000 is the starting price at which Unitree offers the GD01. For comparison, the same company's G1 humanoid robot costs $15,000. The GD01 is therefore more than forty times as expensive. Yet so far, it cannot do even a fraction of what the G1 can.
Unitree describes the GD01 as a "transformable crewed mech" and is targeting it at research laboratories, industrial testing environments, and academic projects. Unitree also asks customers to "use the robot in a friendly and safe manner." It is hard to say exactly who would shell out half a million dollars for such a machine, but Wired speculates that even a small group of deep-pocketed technology enthusiasts might be enough. Or Mr. Beast.
Mecha robots are nothing new
There have been similar attempts in the past to create machines that a person can sit inside and control with their body movements. Most were eye-catching exhibition attractions rather than functional devices for sale. Some relied on technical compromises, such as moving on all fours instead of true bipedal walking. The GD01 walks on two legs. With a pilot inside.
Time will tell whether this is a prototype, an exhibition piece, or a genuine product. Nevertheless, Unitree certainly knows how to surprise us.
Sources: gizmodo.com and osel.cz
