Overview
- XPENG founder He Xiaopeng had engineers unzip the robot’s back to reveal internal components and pointed out audible cooling and fan noise as evidence it is a machine.
- In a separate on-stage segment, engineers cut open part of IRON’s leg covering to expose metallic joints, after which the robot walked away showing its mechanisms in motion.
- Footage of the skin-opening demonstrations surged on Chinese social media, with related hashtags topping Douyin’s trending list, according to SCMP citing Entobit data.
- IRON was introduced at XPENG’s 2025 Tech Day on November 5, where its human-like movement and facial expressions led many viewers to suspect a person was inside.
- Reporting that cites XPENG and Global Times describes 82 degrees of freedom, a human-like spine, bionic muscles, flexible synthetic skin, and a solid-state battery, with development aimed at service roles such as reception and patrol.