Humanoid robot beats human world record for the first time at the Beijing half marathon — but some are still stumbling at the starting line

Honor Lightning.

• An Honor robot has beaten a world record for the half marathon
• The time was set during a joint humanoid and human race
• Over 100 robots were entered, and almost half of them were autonomous

Humanoid robot runners have performed notably better at the second Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing than they did at the inaugural event last year, even beating the fastest ever time set by a flesh-and-blood person — but there were still plenty of technical challenges and mishaps along the way.