This Week in Humanoids: Meta’s Reported Max, Factory Robots and Lumi’s Next Step

Our November 3 Humanoids Daily newsletter is out, led by Meta’s reported humanoid collaboration with Fourier and a week of robots taking on increasingly specific jobs—from sorting car parts to collecting parcels.

Read this week’s edition, or subscribe to the free weekly briefing.

Key Takeaways

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• Meta’s reported Max prototype gives its robotics ambitions a hardware partner and a name.
• Audi, Xiaomi and Reward AI offer new demonstrations of parts handling, factory work and delivery tasks.
• Our Lightberry interview examines what Lumi’s conditional exemption means for its path to customers.

Inside this edition

Meta and Fourier’s reported Max project. The Information describes a custom humanoid built in three months, with a second version underway. We look at the reported design and Meta’s statement that the collaboration is for internal research and experimentation.

Robots get to work. Audi’s parts-sequencing trial and Xiaomi’s eight-hour sorting demonstration bring factory tasks into focus. Reward AI’s latest video takes its humanoid from parcel delivery to household chores, while DEEP Robotics’ traffic assistants appear beside the Hangzhou Marathon route.

Money and milestones. Physical Intelligence’s reported funding talks, Unitree’s quarterly results and the shareholder vote on Agility’s merger each offer a different view of the business behind the robots.

Our Lightberry follow-up. CEO Ali Attar explains the next certification step after Lumi’s conditional exemption. We also explore the company’s manufacturing plans and what remains unspecified about deliveries.

There’s more inside: DeepMind’s Genie 4 robotics simulation, Tesla’s reported December reservation window, Bleu Robotics’ funding, LG’s home-robot ambitions and the battery choices behind useful working time. The issue also includes our sponsored explainer on AGIBOT’s proposed Worken productivity measure.

This edition is presented by RoboStrategy.

Read the full November 3 newsletter and subscribe free for one email a week bringing together our reporting, interviews and demonstrations worth watching.