Yahoo Finance A Basketball Robot Hit A Three-Pointer During Halftime At The Olympics
Watch out NBA players, the robots are coming for your jobs, too.
The French men’s Olympic basketball team pulled off an upset against the U.S. team in Tokyo Saturday night but the real shocker was the freakishly accurate android baller rolled out at halftime to showcase Japan’s robotics prowess.
The humanoid machine shot a free throw and three-pointer before gliding back to half court and nailing a shot from there.
Robots are taking free throws at the #TokyoOlympics.
Automatic. pic.twitter.com/AUoc6zSj4N— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) July 25, 2021
A basketball robot. For your pleasure. pic.twitter.com/5LZF2vpwNg
— Ann Killion (@annkillion) July 25, 2021
Impressive, yes, though pro ballers might find solace in the robot’s slow setup. It took around 10 seconds to line up its half court shot and, while its aim was extremely accurate, the robot seemed to be pretty glacial in its general movement.
It appeared to be a CUE, a robot first created by Toyota in 2018. The third model, CUE3, set a Guinness world record in 2019 for “most consecutive basketball free throws by a humanoid robot (assisted).” The robot hit 2,020 free throws in six hours and 35 minutes ― stopping at that figure in a nod to the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
It’s not clear if the model showcased Saturday was the record-winning CUE3, the fourth generation CUE4, or an even newer edition.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
