On Tuesday, Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Xpeng Motors unveiled its first smart vehicle, a four-legged robot pony that children can ride called the “Little White Dragon.”
Children’s toy: Designed by Xpeng Robotics, the Little White Dragon pony is equipped with power modules, motion control, obstacle detection, face and voice recognition and the ability to express emotions through its front face screen, Seeking Alpha reported.
- He Xiaopeng, co-founder and chief executive of Xpeng, said on Weibo that the company’s first goal is to “churn out a low-speed rideable robotic pony for transport purposes” using existing technologies, South China Morning Post reported.
- Although Xpeng has yet to reveal the physical version of the robot pony or its dimensions, the World Preview video shows the toy’s prototype has the same height as a small child’s. Its design also resembles that of Boston Robotics’ Spot, another four-legged robot, albeit a more kid-friendly version, Engadget reported.
- There has been no official word yet from Xpeng on when the production will begin and the robot pony’s future price.
- The CEO of Xpeng wants his company’s robots to take over aspects of housework and interact with humans on a more emotional level. “Robotics is no easy job, but Xpeng has ambitions of creating an ecosystem centered on autonomous driving,” Cao Hua, a partner at Unity Asset Management, said. “When full autonomous driving is accomplished in the future, quite a few activities such as entertainment and conferencing can be linked with driving. Robocars will become popular.”
Featured Image via XPENG Robotic
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