Unitree debuts riding robot that shifts between two, four legs

Hangzhou robot maker Unitree Robotics unveiled the GD01 in China as a 500 kg manned machine for civilian transport that can shift from two legs to four.

Unitree priced the GD01 from 3.9 million yuan (US$574,000).

A demo video showed a pilot riding in a torso cockpit as the robot walked upright, knocked over a brick wall, and then switched to a four-legged crawl.

The debut comes as Chinese firms widen their presence in humanoid robotics as they made up nearly 90% of global sales in 2025, according to Omdia, and Unitree filed for a Shanghai Star Market IPO in March.

🔗 Source: South China Morning Post

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Unitree’s giant robot masks a smaller business with higher profit

While the 500kg GD01 draws attention, Unitree makes most of its money from smaller, cheaper humanoids. By the first three quarters of 2025, humanoid robots had become its main revenue source 1.
Unitree delivered more than 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025 and said in its prospectus that it ranked first worldwide by shipments 2.
About 50% to 70% of its humanoid revenue from industry applications came from reception and tour-guide jobs, rather than advanced manufacturing, according to the prospectus 3.
Its core business reached a gross margin of about 60% in 2025. Unitree tied that result to making motors and reducers in-house, though the prospectus does not say this margin funds projects like the GD01 1.

Unitree’s global push runs into cybersecurity concerns

A security assessment of Unitree’s G1 humanoid robot described operational risks for customers as the company expands overseas 4.
The analysis described a vulnerability that could let attackers within Bluetooth range gain root-level code execution through a hardcoded fleet-wide key used in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) provisioning 4.
It also described persistent telemetry sent to servers at Chinese IP addresses without user notice, including data from several sensors and service-status details. The paper also described possible surveillance paths through audio and video streams 4.
Those issues raise questions about data sovereignty, where data is stored and governed, as well as corporate espionage. That could slow adoption in sensitive Western industrial or government sites and complicate Unitree’s global plans 4.