Field Note 14 of 22

Unitree Robotics Store, Beijing

“No practical use case yet. That wasn't the point.”

Inside a JD Mall in Chaoyang District, Unitree had a small store selling robots the way another store might sell phones. Three or four models on display, prices starting around three thousand dollars and climbing from there. A sales representative walked me through each one, genuinely eager, the way someone is eager about something they actually believe in.

I asked what people actually used them for. There wasn't a clean answer. Not yet, really.

It reminded me of the Cybertruck, a million deposits placed against a truck with no delivery date, no proven use case, nothing but the fact that people wanted to be near what might come next. Watching the store, I didn't read the absence of a use case as a gap. It felt more like the actual starting point, ordinary people invited to touch a technology, maybe buy it, well before anyone has fully decided what it's for.

Field Note 14