The GD01, described by the company as the world’s first production-ready manned mecha, is built from high-strength alloy and designed for civilian transport, according to the South China Morning Post.

It weighs about 500 kilograms with a pilot on board, roughly the weight of a grand piano, and starts at 3.9 million yuan (US$574,000).

In a video released Tuesday, Unitree founder Wang Xingxing was seen inside the machine, controlling it as it moved forward, used its mechanical arms to break through walls, and then reconfigured its chassis to shift into a four-legged crawl.

The demonstration quickly went viral across Chinese and international social media, with many users comparing the machine to scenes from science fiction.

"How did they even come up with this track? It feels like watching Transformers in real life," one user wrote on Weibo, as quoted by Global Times.

Another commented: "The avatar armor is real now," while others said "China is truly a paradise for engineers."

Chen Jing, vice president of the Technology and Strategy Research Institute, told the Global Times that the GD01 represents an important step for embodied artificial intelligence in China.

"It is no longer just a proof-of-concept machine confined to laboratories, but a product with a clear price tag and commercialization roadmap," Chen said.

He added that the machine still faces practical challenges, including difficulty getting in and out of the cockpit, battery-life concerns, limited comfort, regulatory uncertainty, and maintenance complexity.

Huang Jiawei, a marketing staff member at Unitree, said the GD01’s price remains high, but it is only a preliminary reference as further functional improvements and cost reductions will take time after the product’s initial launch.

"The product is still in its first generation at this stage, and there is indeed a lot of room for imagination," Huang said.