Vbot Delivers First Robot Dog to Horizon Robotics Founder, Marking Consumer Embodied AI Milestone

Vbot, an embodied AI company, delivered its first consumer robot dog to Dr. Yu Kai, founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics, on June 1, 2026 — coinciding with Horizon Robotics' 11th anniversary. Yu Kai became the first personal user of Vbot's super robot dog, marking a pivotal moment for China's embodied AI industry. The delivery signals a shift from laboratory demonstrations and shopping mall exhibitions to genuine consumer delivery and iteration. Prior to this, China's quadruped robots were largely confined to two scenarios: tech exhibitions and commercial venues as novelty attractions. During the recent May Day holiday, Vbot's retail locations in Beijing Solana and Shanghai Changning Raffles became popular destinations for families, tech enthusiasts, and international visitors. Industry observers note that quadruped robot hardware specifications are converging, with competition shifting toward environmental understanding, autonomous navigation, multimodal interaction, and scenario adaptation. The ability to walk stably is now table stakes — the real competition is in understanding, communicating, and being useful. Yu Kai praised the robot dog's voice interaction, autonomous following, pathfinding, and obstacle avoidance capabilities, describing it as possessing unique "intelligence" that goes beyond functionality to deliver emotional value as a family companion. DiRen Robotics CEO Wang Cong noted that in-store experiences show natural interaction between the robot dog, humans, and even pets highlights the essential consumer product quality — technology hidden behind the scenes, with experience that feels natural. Vbot has begun pushing version 1.2 upgrades, delivering 20 optimizations including outdoor following Beta, enhanced voice control, improved stair climbing, weight-bearing walking stability, and power optimization. This post-delivery continuous evolution model marks quadruped robots' transition from one-time sales to full lifecycle services. Vbot's founding team previously contributed to mass production of millions of autonomous driving systems, bringing automotive-grade engineering and systematization experience to consumer robotics. The company plans to deepen cooperation with Horizon Robotics' robotics lab on environmental understanding, autonomous planning, and task execution, while developing full-size humanoid robots and world models.