RoboTech Vision attended the Wuzhen Summit 2025 and visited Unitree, WeRide, and Alibaba AI Labs

December 1, 2025  |  News

Members of RoboTech Vision, together with teams from Elevate and Dius AI, attended the World Internet Conference 2025 in China. The theme of this year’s event was building an open, cooperative, secure, and intelligent future in cyberspace. In addition, they visited numerous innovative companies, had the opportunity to try autonomous rides in the RoboTaxi and RoboBus by WeRide, and exchanged professional experience with fellow developers.

The World Internet Conference, also known as the Wuzhen Summit, has been organized by the Chinese government since 2014 with the aim of discussing global internet issues and showcasing technological innovations. It is a unique opportunity to gain insight into new developments and establish new connections. “At the conference, we were able to see various technological innovations in robotics, artificial intelligence, gaming, and agriculture. Naturally, there were also entertaining applications such as dancing humanoids and several musical and massage products,” describes Ing. Patrik Štefka, a robotics engineer at RoboTech Vision.

We also visited Unitree company

The largest presence of humanoids at the exhibition was represented by the G1 model from Unitree, which received an award at the conference. “It is a robot we also have experience with at RoboTech Vision. Like other companies at the conference, we customize it in the developer version for our own purpose. We implement our own algorithms of autonomous navigation and test the hardware’s resilience in simple applications, such as grasping a bottle. It is another prototype on which we test the versatility of our software,” adds engineer Ing. Matúš Jankech of RoboTech Vision. Until now, the company focused primarily on software development for drones and mobile robots with differential and Double-Ackerman chassis; now they are fine‑tuning it for a humanoid as well.

During the stay in China, the team also had the opportunity to visit Unitree’s facilities, where they were given a tour of older models and shown features that are not yet available in commercial versions. “We saw that the G1 model at the exhibition was able to perform backflips, while ours cannot yet. The company explained that they release only the features that are 100% debugged. It is clear they continue improving their models. We therefore tried to share our positive and negative experiences with the G1 to provide constructive feedback for further development,” adds Ing. Patrik Štefka.

Exoskeletons outperformed humanoid robots

Although humanoids from other companies were also present, real-world applications were still mostly slow or inaccurate.

For that reason, Ing. Štefka appreciated solutions such as mind‑controlled wheelchair for the handicapped person or exoskeletons. “It is an amazing symbiosis of robotics and humans, where robotic arms or legs enhance workers’ performance and protect them from injuries caused by lifting heavy materials. This can find immediate application in logistics and industry, and the demonstrations were almost always flawless,” he says. In addition, there were companies focused on developing grippers, 3D scanners, and dataset processing. “These may be less visually attractive demonstrations, but they are essential for robotics and AI development. Many of these companies were at a high level, so we plan to collaborate with them,” adds Ing. Jankech.

Autonomous taxi ignored a police officer

Members of RoboTech Vision also had the chance to visit Guangzhou, city ​​where We Ride has an offices. They experienced a technical demo ride in the RoboTaxi, a minibus that drove autonomously for more than an hour at L4 autonomy. “The vehicle had many lidars, wide-angle cameras, distance sensors, and other detectors. The total value of the sensors and computing unit was around €80,000, and according to WeRide, the car itself cost roughly the same amount,” says Ing. Štefka.

The ride began by pressing “start” on the display, after which passengers could play music or watch how the car detected traffic, surrounding cars, pedestrians, and traffic lights. “The only mistake the autonomous bus made during the ride was failing to stop when a police officer signaled the RoboTaxi to stop. The vehicle turned on its indicator and safely bypassed the officer. When the policeman saw there was no driver, he took no further action. WeRide later explained that this was an exceptional situation. The city is mostly electronically managed, and it is rare for traffic to be controlled manually,” adds Ing. Štefka.

5G internet with latency under 250 milliseconds

Despite Guangzhou’s high technological level, autonomous cars are still rare. “At WeRide, we were able to see how many vehicles are currently in traffic — around 100. Even so, people were taking pictures of us during the ride when they noticed the car had no driver. The car even honked a few times when necessary,” adds Ing. Jankech. WeRide also revealed how they ensure vehicle safety: “At the company’s headquarters, there are teleoperation stations resembling static cars. In emergencies, an operator can connect to a selected vehicle and intervene if needed. One operator handles five vehicles, working eight hours a day, actively for two hours, followed by a 15‑minute break. A supervisor oversees them, and each operator also has a backup,” says Ing. Štefka.

The company also secures its data transmission speed to ensure rapid response when required. WeRide uses 5G networks from three providers and can switch seamlessly between them. Latency is therefore under 250 ms. RoboTech Vision members also took a shorter test drive in the Farizon RoboBus from Geely. The bus is already in regular traffic and is being purchased by companies from the USA, Dubai, France, Switzerland, and other countries. WeRide also operates various autonomous municipal machines such as the Robosweeper and the Robowan delivery vehicle with a large cargo capacity.

Electric truck and supercomputers in a school

The hardware supplier — meaning the vehicles themselves — is Geely, which also owns Volvo and Lotus. “We had the opportunity to visit Geely’s headquarters, where it was clear that they focus heavily on new energy sources: improving electric drives, developing hydrogen and hybrid drives, not only for passenger cars but also trucks and even ships,” says Ing. Jankech. Another stop was Alibaba Group, specifically their AI labs, where RoboTech Vision members saw a holographic presenter with the AI model Gwen and learned about the company’s data‑processing systems. “They use various server‑cooling techniques, such as aquariums filled with mineral oil, allowing an ordinary school computer connected to the cloud to reach supercomputer‑level performance,” adds Ing. Štefka.

The week‑long business trip to China showed that both technology companies and the state are at a very high level. “The cities we visited and the companies we saw had a lot to offer. We saw a great deal of inspiration in just one week. As in our country, we encountered companies that felt more like startup bubbles, but also companies with strong, advanced development. Many applications could inspire our projects or even the country as a whole. I believe Slovakia has much to learn in terms of automation and development, especially since a large part of our industry is automotive and major innovations are just around the corner. We also have many capable companies and experts who could keep up with rapid technological progress. They prove it with simple applications that could be transformed into large projects if given the opportunity,” concludes Ing. Štefka.