Tokyo, not Detroit, lands the humanoids first

JAPAN AIRLINES, the country's flag carrier, on April 27th announced a three-year humanoid robot pilot at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, beginning in May. Two robots, made in China and supplied by GMO AI & Robotics Trading, a unit of GMO Internet Group, will load cargo containers and operate fastening levers on the tarmac — the first publicly announced humanoid pilot in airport ramp operations anywhere. GMO has decreed 2026 to be "the First Year of Humanoids." On the evidence, the geography of that first year is more interesting than the timing.

The Western consensus treats humanoids as an American race. Tesla's Optimus, with a target line of 1m units a year, will be unveiled in late summer. Figure, a Sunnyvale-based startup, raised $675m in 2024 at a $2.6bn valuation. Apptronik, an Austin-based outfit, in February closed its Series A at $935m, bringing total funds raised close to $1bn. The pitch decks point at factory floors in Detroit, Spartanburg and Fremont; the trade press has followed.

Ground truth

The actual map of pilots tells a different story. Mercedes-Benz, the German carmaker, is testing Apptronik's Apollo at its Digital Factory Campus in Berlin-Marienfelde and at its plant in Kecskemét, Hungary, after investing more than €100m in the firm. Hyundai Motor Group, which owns Boston Dynamics, has committed every Atlas humanoid Boston Dynamics will ship in 2026 to its own Robotics Metaplant and Google DeepMind, with serial factory deployment beginning in 2028 and a 30,000-unit-a-year line under construction. Agility Robotics has Digit units operating at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada in Woodstock, Ontario, since February. JAL is the latest. The first lighthouse customers cluster in countries that share an awkward set of features: aging populations, modest immigration and a dearth of service-sector labor that cannot be relocated abroad.