BYD executive vice president Stella Li announced during an interview at the Cannes Lions festival that the Chinese automaker is developing its own humanoid robot designed to debut in company showrooms within the next one to two years. The initiative positions BYD to directly compete with Tesla’s Optimus program while targeting the rapidly expanding commercial robotics sector. Li stated that each BYD dealership would be equipped with two or three humanoid units capable of vehicle demonstrations and customer interaction. The robots are intended to supplement, rather than replace, human sales staff, with Li emphasizing that human interaction remains essential for establishing emotional connections with buyers. The announcement aligns with significant market expansion projections, as Morgan Stanley forecasts the global humanoid robotics market will surge from three billion dollars in 2025 to twenty-eight billion by 2030. Chinese manufacturers currently command more than eighty percent of global shipments, with firms such as Unitree and UBTech leading domestic innovation. BYD’s entry into the sector introduces renewed competition against Tesla, which plans to commence Optimus production this summer. Despite the accelerated pace of development in China, Li acknowledged that practical deployment in unstructured environments still requires breakthroughs in energy efficiency and artificial intelligence processing. BYD intends to engineer the robot in-house while remaining open to external procurement if market demands dictate. Beyond retail applications, BYD is simultaneously advancing its industrial automation capabilities. Li projected that the company is progressing toward fully autonomous manufacturing facilities, commonly referred to as dark factories, within a three-to-five-year timeframe. These next-generation production sites would operate without human oversight, relying entirely on robotic systems to manage assembly and logistics. The dual focus on consumer-facing and industrial robotics underscores BYD’s strategy to vertically integrate advanced automation across its automotive and technology operations. As the global race for humanoid AI accelerates, BYD’s roadmap signals a broader industry shift from controlled factory environments toward real-world commercial deployment, contingent upon sustained improvements in hardware efficiency and machine learning architecture.