Why humanoid robots won't catch up to human workers any time soon

In 2024 Tesla’s Optimus served drinks, and in 2026 Unitree’s robots executed complex martial-arts routines and a robot completed a 100-m sprint in 8.86 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games. Experts report that simple object manipulation remains very hard, current systems depend heavily on teleoperation, lack long-duration planning, and face economic, durability, and safety challenges that keep them from replacing human labor soon.