CNBC AI News (May 17) — When reporters arrived at Unitree Robotics’ headquarters recently, they encountered a surprising juxtaposition: The company’s cutting-edge robot dogs were running rampant through an office building still bearing the scars of every engineering iteration tested on its staircase.
The Shanghai-based corporate campus, while evoking a bygone era architecturally, revealed itself as a living laboratory where Unitree’s quadruped robots receive their final stress testing. “It’s Darwin meets Silicon Valley in this building,” remarked one source as a Unitree Go1 clattered past mid-way through an autonomous stair-climbing routine, leaving fresh paw prints in the already battered concrete.
The headquarters’ staircase has become both obstacle course and battleground for robot dog R&D
Market dynamics prove far more stable than Unitree’s stair treads. According to GGII research, the company shipped 23,700 quadruped robots in 2024 alone, capturing 69.75% of the global market across consumer, enterprise, and academic applications. This dominance remains unmatched in both China’s domestic robotics race and international competition.
Earlier this month, security researchers raised alarms about potential vulnerabilities in the Go1’s network architecture. Unitree’s (SH: 688070) subsequent technical audit revealed a sophisticated third-party breach involving compromised management keys from an embedded cloud tunneling service. Unauthorized actors had exploited access to video feeds and local software stacks through backdoor entry points in enterprise-registered units.
“The incident involved third-party infrastructure entirely outside our security control,” Chief Technology Officer Wei Kun explained during a technical briefing. To mitigate risks, Unitree implemented a two-phase response: revoking access tokens on March 24 and decommissioning the tunneling service 5 days later. Firmware updates now permanently deny external access to this functionality.
Operational Philosophy
The company’s decision to retain its aging headquarters despite commercial success highlights its engineering-first culture. Production costs reportedly decline 30% through maintaining a vertically-integrated development pipeline where prototype wear-and-tear occurs in real time.
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