Josh Hendrickson
Sure, self-driving cars are all the rage even if they don’t exist yet, but why would you want one of those? At least why would you want one when a rideable robot unicorn is an option? Oh, maybe because it’s just for kids.
Also, to be fair, it doesn’t exist quite yet, but neither do true self-driving cars. Still, Chinese EV company Xpeng sent out a teaser for a robot unicorn that’s rideable and serves as a companion to children. The unicorn robot will rely on Xpeng’s experience with self-driving tech to power its movements.
At first glance, you might almost confuse the robot for a Boston Dynamics entry for kids, and that’s probably no accident. Much like those robots, it will navigate terrain, keep its “eyes” on objects, and avoid obstacles. Xpeng even shaped the “knees” of the robot to give it a horse-like gait. It may not count as “prancing” like the companies claims, but it’s pretty close.
Xpeng also claims its robot unicorn will be able to emotionally interact with anyone that rides it, though what that entails isn’t very clear. As you can in the video above, most of that the company promises doesn’t seem to be real yet. The actual robot only appears near the very end. Xpeng isn’t saying when it will release or how much it will cost, either. The company didn’t even give a name for the robot. We recommend Swift Wind. And hopefully a U.S. release at a price we can afford.
