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Tesla’s Optimus robot is going through growing pains

2026-09-25T13:01:36-04:00

Hitting its goal of making 20,000 Optimus robots per week is reportedly proving tricky for Tesla. The Information reports that Tesla produced "several hundred robots a week" last month, after it repurposed its Model S and Model X production lines for Optimus earlier this year. However, this strategy is reportedly creating manufacturing snags, like issues lining up parts precisely, as The Information notes: "Not only are the Optimus production lines new, but the Optimus parts are much smaller and have to fit together far more precisely than car parts."

It reports that even in the "V3" Optimus robots it's currently producing, the hands and f …

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The best tech and gadgets announced at IFA 2026

2026-09-08T11:25:28-04:00

Following a week of new hardware, upgrades, and other news coming out of IFA 2026 in Berlin, Germany, Europe's largest consumer tech show comes to a close today. It's a lot to take in, but you can quickly catch up on the best announcements from the show here including a smartphone that attempts to finally rid the world of screen bezels, piggybacking robovacs, and a bunch of new smart home innovations.

To catch up on everything announced at IFA 2026 you can follow The Verge's complete coverage right here.

Tecno Bezelless Concept Smartphone

By tucking the edges of its 6.78-inch, 144Hz OLED panel underneath the phone's thin metal frame, Tecn …

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iRobot unveils the Roomba Duo

2026-09-05T12:13:50-04:00

The Roomba Duo is two robot floor cleaners in one.

The original robot vacuum company showed off a concept robot at the IFA tech show in Berlin today. The Roomba Duo combines a heavy-duty floor-washing machine with a smaller, slimmer Roomba. The two floor cleaners can move around your home together, with the main unit mopping and sweeping larger floor areas and the smaller unit lowering mechanically when needed to clean tighter spaces, such as under tables or in corners.

The Roomba Duo is a floor washer that carries a smaller robot vacuum with it." data-portal-copyright=""> The Roomba Plus 757 lives on top." data-portal-copyright=""> You can see part of the floor washing mechanism here, iRobot didn't show the underside of the robot." data-portal-copyright=""> The robot's navigation systems are at the top, giving it a sort of face." data-portal-copyright="">

The Duo is also an autonomous mobile dock, with clean and dirty water tanks and a dust bag on board, and it uses lidar and camera-based navigation to map your home, navigate, detect obstacles, and look for dirt.

The …

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DJI’s new robovac can climb obstacles, vacuum quietly, and claims much improved privacy

2026-09-03T11:29:07-04:00

DJI has announced a second generation of its Romo robovac. The Romo 2 series is quieter, more powerful, and better at climbing over small steps and other obstacles. But more importantly for DJI, a new local-only data mode should go some way to reassuring anyone concerned by the first Romo's serious security flaws.

There are actually two new Romo models, the transparent P2 and the opaque A2. Both benefit from improved navigation, apparently able to avoid cables and other obstacles as small as 2mm in size, as well as transparent objects like mirrors or glass. There's also "human-like reasoning and concept transfer" that supposedly allows Romo …

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These new robot lawn mowers trim your edges

2026-09-03T19:53:04-04:00

Mammotion’s Luba 4 AWD can clean up the sides of your driveway and flower beds with its edger attachement. | Image: Mammotion

Anker's new robot lawn mower might take over for your Weedwacker, too. Announced at IFA 2026, the Eufy Robot Lawn Mower S2 Max comes with an extendable trimming arm to clean up the grass around your driveway and flowerbeds.

The dual-blade mower offers vSLAM navigation that uses built-in cameras to build a 3D map of your yard, eliminating the need to set up boundary wires or a real-time kinematic (RTK) base station. Anker says the Mower S2 Max can map and mow up to 3.7 acres, while handling yards with up to 80 percent (38-degree) slopes. The robot mower is AWD and will launch in May 2027 for €3,999. There's no word on US pricing or availabil …

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The robot butler dream doesn’t have legs

2026-09-02T06:19:14-04:00

LG’s CLOiD is a robot housekeeper on wheels, not legs. The company says it’s developing a robot foundation model by training hundreds of CLOiDs in home environments. | Image: LG

The idea of humanoid robots running our homes has been the stuff of science fiction for years. But unlike hoverboards and self-tying sneakers, a robot housekeeper has never felt close to rolling into our homes. Until now.

This has been the year of the humanoid robot. At CES, there were dozens of human-shaped bots on the show floor, a handful designed for homes. US-based robotics company 1X has already put its $20,000 Neo robot into homes to do housework (with a lot of remote assistance); and this week at the IFA tech show in Berlin, around half a dozen humanoids, mostly from China, will take to a catwalk to show off the alarming (?) accele …

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This new Roomba seals itself to your carpet

2026-09-02T02:08:45-04:00

The Roomba Max 875 Combo is iRobot’s latest flagship robot vacuum mop. | Image: iRobot

iRobot has announced a new flagship robot vacuum, which it will showcase at IFA in Berlin this week, the company's first big tech trade show in years. The Roomba maker will be exhibiting under its new owner, Picea Robotics, the contract manufacturer that purchased the once-troubled American robotics company out of bankruptcy in January.

The $1,199 Roomba Max 875 Combo is the company's newest top-of-the-line robot vacuum and mop, and it debuts alongside the $899 Roomba Plus 678 Combo. Both models are available now at irobot.com.

The key vacuuming improvement is a new sealing system iRobot is calling SealForce that takes vacuuming "to a leve …

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China’s robots race ahead

2026-08-31T04:01:11-04:00

Humanoid robot competes in the optional boxing routine event during the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games at National Speed Skating Oval on August 26, 2026 in Beijing, China. | Image: Getty Images

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on falling robots and the US-China AI race, follow Robert Hart. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.

How it started

I've admitted my fondness for robot fail videos on Stepback before, and let me tell you the World Humanoid Robot Games did not disappoint.

The five-day event, which wrapped this week in Beijing, brought high drama, and brought it well. One robot, made by smartphone maker Honor, lost a leg mid-sprint, while others tripped in a flurry of sparks. Another finis …

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Hugging Face’s new robot is an adorable rollerskating duck

2026-08-27T09:44:00-04:00

Hugging Face's Pollen Robotics has launched its second cute AI robot, the Microduck, a one-eyed biped standing just under 10 inches tall. It's available to preorder now for $399 in cream, graphite, lavender, and sky blue, and Pollen Robotics says it plans to start shipping the little robot "before Christmas 2026."

Video demos of the Microduck show it picking up socks and markers, kicking around a ball, and zipping around on tiny rollerskates. Pollen Robotics says it can also "react to its surroundings" and follow around a laser pointer, or users can control it with a game controller. The Microduck's software is open-source, like Hugging Fa …

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Humanoid robots smash Usain Bolt’s 100-meter record

2026-08-24T05:10:40-04:00

Tiangong Ultra (left) also broke the 400 meter world record during this year’s World Humanoid Robot Games. | Image: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

The 9.58-second 100-meter dash record set by Usain Bolt in 2009 has been outpaced by Chinese robots participating at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. In a preliminary heat on Saturday, Tiangong Ultra, made by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, ran the distance in 9.39 seconds, followed by the Honor-developed Lightning at 9.47 seconds.

It's one of several notable achievements to take place at the event, which can best be described as a sort of annual robot olympics that's designed to showcase advancements in bipedal bot technology. After launching in 2025, 2,056 robots from 16 countries are participating in this year's …

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