Xpeng’s IRON Humanoid Robot Shows Why It’s Ready to Step In

At the 2025 AI Day in Guangzhou, Xpeng unveiled the latest version of IRON at a convention center. Engineers spent the last year refining every joint and circuit to turn a promising prototype into something that moves like a human walking on a crowded street. This second generation robot walks, talks and handles objects in ways that feel so familiar. It’s 178cm tall and 70kg, the same as a normal adult, but the real magic is in the seamless combination of hardware and software that allows it to do everyday tasks without a script.

IRON’s body is based on a flexible spine and synthetic muscles that bend and contract like real ones. These muscles power 62 active joints throughout the body, from shrugging shoulders to curling toes for balance on uneven ground. The hands are worth a closer look: each has 22 degrees of mobility, can pinch a small tool or grip a big package with the same ease. On top, a curved screen wraps around the head, forming a face that changes expression during conversations. The skin is soft to the touch and an all-solid-state battery provides consistent power without adding bulk. Safety is built in, the battery design eliminates the risk of overheating and leakage of earlier designs.

All of this is powered by three Turing AI chips, which can do 2,250 trillion operations per second – a level of brain power that can process images and sounds in real time. Xpeng paired those processors with its Vision-Language-Action system, which links what the robot sees to what it does next. This model has communication and reasoning tools, can answer questions while folding laundry or guiding a guest through a showroom. Developers get an open kit to build on, can add custom tasks in offices and warehouses.

Walking has always been a major hurdle for robots – but the IRON prototype somehow manages to pull it off with a stride that feels almost as natural as a human’s. The joints in the feet are actually designed to absorb shock when walking on a hard surface like concrete. Videos of it show it gliding over obstacles and picking up objects without missing a beat – and it does this so effortlessly because the AI has been trained up on countless hours video footage of people walking, rather than simply following a set of pre programmed rules. In tests, it was able to move at a clip of 2 meters per second, without a hitch, through crowded areas. For now, the demos are all carefully choreographed – but the bigger plan is that this is just the start – and soon IRON will be moving into the real world.


IRON is going to start out in stores, where it will be greeting customers, showing off the latest products and bringing a bit of personality to the whole shopping experience. They’re planning to start rolling out units inside the company by the end of next year – and once those are up and running they’ll start to introduce new functions, such as handling reception and basic sales support. Baoshan Iron & Steel have signed up to be one of the first companies to take a crack at using IRON – and they’re hoping to use it to detect when gear is starting to get worn out, before it breaks down completely.
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