Dongfeng Motor plans to begin small-batch trial production of its humanoid robot at the end of this year, with the robot entering factories in October to handle sorting and quality inspection, according to Zhang Zhenlin, chief engineer of intelligent technology at Dongfeng. Zhang said the company plans to bring the robot's working capabilities on par with those of human workers by the end of next year. The remarks were made at Dongfeng's tenth science and technology innovation week, where the company released plans including the "Tianjing Zero Carbon" plan and an embodied intelligence vehicle protection plan. Dongfeng's in-house developed robot dog will be put into commercial use sooner than the humanoid robot, first entering scenarios such as customer guidance at dealerships. Dongfeng's humanoid robot Xiaodong and quadruped robot Yuanzai debuted at the 2026 World Robot Conference in August. Xiaodong targets material sorting in automotive manufacturing, while Yuanzai supports autonomous navigation, multimodal perception and intelligent interaction for campus patrol and smart services. Dongfeng's timeline aligns with Chinese automakers entering the robotics race, with Xpeng putting a humanoid robot production line into operation on September 8 and reiterating its Iron robot will begin mass production at the end of this year.