If you’ve watched Jackie Chan’s Rush Hour films*, you might recall that xiao di means ‘little brother’ in Mandarin Chinese. It’s also (very probably) the name of car manufacturer BYD’s humanoid robot contender. Information about the friendly-seeming guy (‘seeming’) turned up via a leak, since deleted, on China’s Weibo social media network.
The leak was pretty extensive, with images of the robot appearing alongside technical details of the droid. Most of this was marketing material, and there doesn’t seem to be any official photography (the header image here appears to be a render), but BYD seems to want to make this one seem very friendly.
This is my Xiao Di
The naming convention is fantastic for a first product. Pointing out your new humanoid robot and saying ‘This is my little brother’ is one way to cement positive vibes into prospective buyers. But good vibes don’t give you a decent robotic companion. Some of the available tech details might be more convincing.
Xiao Di is supposed to stand 1.62cm tall and weigh in at 59 kilograms. That means the robot isn’t exactly a lightweight, and it almost matches human averages for its size. In terms of strength and dexterity, though, there’s still some catching up to do. The humanoid should be able to hold objects weighing about 1 kilogram with a fair degree of accuracy.
360° vision (we’re guessing cameras all around), plus an object modelling system, will apparently give it object and facial recognition. An onboard AI model provides real-time translation for several languages, too. The critter is supposed to follow users around everywhere and… help, we suppose?
The robot’s name might be more than just a decent marketing ploy, however. Notebookcheck reckons that BYD refers to the Xiao Di robot as female, and that the title translates more closely to ‘little BYD’ (Di is a shortened version of the company’s brand in China). We reckon our take on the translation is better.
That said, there’s no sign of whether the Xiao Di robot will make it to retail. They may first spend time in BYD dealerships in China as assistants before making it to places where regular humans can buy one. The company has previously stated its intention to use humanoid robots as sales assistants. This could be the beginning of that initiative. We’ll know more once BYD lets go of its secretive intentions and shares with the rest of the class.
*Okay, fine, the term used in the film is actually xiōng di (big brother), but the principle is the same.
