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Robotics & Autonomy·August 10, 2026·1 min read

As Waymo expands its fleet from 700 in 2025 to nearly 4,000 now, recalls and edge-case failures like flooded roadways and a San Francisco power outage mount

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Waymo scaling from 700 to nearly 4,000 vehicles while recalls and edge-case failures stack up is the classic curve where operational risk grows faster than fleet size. If you’re deploying autonomy in the wild, budget as much for incident response, telemetry, and policy work as you do for additional units.

Robotics & Autonomy

Smart Analytics: Chinese humanoid robot makers were 97%+ of global shipments in H1 2026, reaching ~19,100 unit shipments globally, up from 5,100 in H1 2025

Chinese vendors going from 5,100 to ~19,100 humanoid units in a year and taking 97%+ of shipments per [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-10/china-humanoid-makers-hold-97-of-global-shipments-report-says?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4NjM0MzQ5MiwiZXhwIjoxNzg2OTQ4MjkyLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUSkpCVUhLR0NURk0wMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNTc5RDIwMDZBQjQ0RjRDODkwMTU0M0U0ODMxNkJCNiJ9.5Gy19_jWtJKF5sap7B1NEnDmsyRifOWebvP7pJ6HU3A) means the cost curve and learning curve for humanoids may be set in China. If you run industrial or logistics operations outside China, start mapping where you’ll source hardware, service, and safety standards before this becomes another EV-style dependency problem.