- A Chinese robotics startup has revealed a super-realistic humanoid robot
- DroidUp claims that Moya is the first “biomimetic AI robot”
- Moya is expected to launch in late 2026 for ¥1.2 million (around $173,000 / £127,000 / AU$248,000)
Disturbingly lifelike humanoid robots are becoming a big theme of 2026 – and a Shanghai startup has just revealed what might be the closest thing to an extra from Westworld.
Fortunately, it’s still easy to tell that Moya is indeed a robot – the plasticky skin, dead eyes, and slightly jerky movements give that away. But a few interesting, or perhaps creepy, details mean it’s also a cut above your average cold-blooded companion.
Firstly, Moya’s skin is actually warm. “A robot that truly serves human life should be warm… almost like a living being that people can people can connect with,” claimed Li Qingdu, founder of Moya’s maker Droidup, in an interview with Shanghai Eye.
That’s up for debate, but the robot has a body temperature of between 32C and 36C (or 90F-97F), according to Droidup. According to the South China Morning Post, this is because Droidup sees a future for Moya in healthcare, education, and commercial applications, as well as being a daily companion for humans.
These lifelike elements extend to Moya’s walking style, which Droidup claims has an accuracy rate of 92%. Quite how that’s measured isn’t clear, and it seems generous when you see Mora gingerly shuffling around as if she’s just done a two-hour HIIT workout.
However, Moya’s ‘Walker 3’ skeleton is the sequel to the one that won the bronze medal in the world’s first robot half-marathon, held in Beijing in April 2025. And there’s no doubt that this robot has some impressive skills besides human-like movement.
Behind her eyes is a camera, which means she can interact with humans and respond with human-like “micro expressions”. There is naturally also AI on board, too, which is why Droidup is calling Moya the world’s first “fully biomimetic embodied intelligent robot”.
That description is open to interpretation, but Mora is another impressive example of AI stepping out of the digital world and into our physical one, with increasingly convincing results.
Analysis: The robots are coming – but not into our homes
He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, yesterday addressed the incident where the Chinese NEV maker’s humanoid robot Iron fell unexpectedly while standing during its first public offline debut at Mixc in Shenzhen Bay on Jan. 31, saying that it reminds him of how all… pic.twitter.com/nDwKOrypTzFebruary 2, 2026
Humanoid robots are now stepping out of labs and into the real world, but they remain well beyond the reach of most consumers. Moya, for example, is expected to launch fully in late 2026 for ¥1.2 million, or around $173,000 / £127,000 / AU$248,000.
The title of ‘most creepily-realistic robot walk’ still arguably goes to Xpeng’s IRON (above), which sashays around like a catwalk model in such a convincing way that many have suspected it’s a human cosplaying as a robot.
That myth was dispelled when the robot spectacularly fell on its face during its first public demo (see 0:20s in the video above), proving that fails have now become a rite of passage for the heirs to Honda’s legendary ASIMO. Or perhaps they’re just lulling us into a false sense of security.
Either way, CES 2026 showed us that humanoid robots aren’t anywhere close to strolling around our homes, even if the 1X Neo (yours for just $20,000) briefly looked like the answer to our home chore prayers.
The reality is that robots that are truly evolved for our homes don’t need to look like Moya, let alone have warm skin or 92% walking accuracy. Commenters on the South China Morning Post video about Moya said, “If she dares to take two steps towards my bed, I’m throwing her off the balcony,” and “It walks like a ghost, looks like a deterrent for burglars and keeps creepy neighbors at bay.”
Instead, we’re most likely to meet humanoid robots in their early public service roles. UBTech Robotics recently won a big contract to post its humanoids at the China-Vietnam border crossing, where they’ll guide travelers and, more worryingly, conduct inspections.
And Droidup says it similarly sees robots like Moya as being best-suited to “public service scenarios” at “train stations, banks, museums, and shopping malls, providing the public with convenient services such as consultation, route guidance, and information introduction.
That might be worrying news for those who work in those places, but for now, our home robots are more likely to look like the best robot vacuums than a humanoid with camera-powered eyes and warm skin.
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mark.wilson@futurenet.com (Mark Wilson)
