🔓 Remix Reality Insider: Robot Hands at Work

Your premium drop on the systems, machines, and forces reshaping reality.

🛰️ The Signal

This week’s defining shift.

Robots are learning to use their hands.

Robotics is advancing toward true dexterity. Companies are developing systems that can handle complex, real-world tasks with precision and adaptability. New physical AI models are learning from real data instead of simulation, allowing robots to manipulate objects, recover from errors, and adjust to changing conditions on their own.

This week’s news surfaced signals like these:

• Mimic raised $16 million to train robots in human-like dexterity for industrial uses. Its AI model learns from real factory workers performing skilled tasks, translating motion data into robotic capability. The company’s modular approach is already being tested by Fortune 500 manufacturers.
• Generalist launched GEN-0, a foundation model trained on more than 270,000 hours of real-world interaction. GEN-0 learns by doing, not just by observing, enabling robots to complete multi-step tasks like folding, inserting, and sealing in one continuous motion.
• Intrinsic, part of Alphabet, introduced a new Vision Model that improves how robots see and adapt in real factory conditions. Trained for pixel-level reasoning and capable of running on standard RGB cameras, it helps robots recognize and track complex parts under changing materials and lighting. This improves how robots perform in varied manufacturing tasks that demand precision and quick adjustment.

Why this matters: Companies are taking different approaches to improve robot dexterity. Some use motion data from people, others train on real-world examples, and some focus on better vision systems. The goal is to build robots that can handle the same messy, unpredictable conditions people do. They don’t need to look human. They just need to get the job done safely and reliably in the same environments we do.

🧠 Reality Decoded

Your premium deep dive.

China is opening the airspace below 3,000 meters for commercial use. The country expects its low-altitude economy to reach about $489 billion by 2035, supported by more than 77,000 companies making drones, eVTOL aircraft, and delivery systems. Cities like Shenzhen are adding vertiports, flight routes, and pilotless air taxis as part of this plan.

Here are a few of the key takeaways from this week's deep dive on China's low-altitude economy:

• National coordination: China’s aviation and industry ministries are working together on a plan to open the country’s lower airspace for commercial use. It includes a new 6G and Integrated Sensing and Communication network designed to track and manage low-altitude flights in real time.
• Urban infrastructure: Shenzhen is leading the rollout with partners like Skyportz and Haylion Technologies, which plan to build more than 1,000 vertiports. Their new landing pad design reduces rotor wind, making rooftop takeoffs safer and more practical.
• Everyday adoption: Drone deliveries from Keeta and Meituan already serve major cities, while EHang’s pilotless air taxis are completing test flights in Guangzhou. Drone services for logistics, inspection, and emergency response are also expanding nationwide.

Key Takeaway:
China’s low-altitude economy shows how coordination between government and industry can create new kinds of markets. It’s an early look at cities that grow upward, where transport and delivery through the air become part of everyday life.

📡 Weekly Radar

Your weekly scan across the spatial computing stack.

🩺 Sovato Raises $41M Series B to Expand Remote Robotic Surgery Platform

• The Series B funding will support Sovato’s system-agnostic platform, enabling remote robotic surgeries and procedures.
• Why this matters: With a growing number of surgical robots out there, Sovato’s play to connect them all remotely is a smart move. This is the kind of platform play that could reshape how surgery gets done.

🏭 Hyundai, NVIDIA Partner on $3B AI Factory for Mobility and Robotics

• The $3 billion investment is a joint effort with the Korean government to build AI centers, infrastructure, and workforce programs for physical AI.
• Why this matters: Korea is backing physical AI in a big way, and Hyundai and NVIDIA are turning that support into real infrastructure for smarter vehicles, better factories, and faster development across both.

💍 Sandbar Launches Stream, a Voice-Driven AI Ring for Thinking Out Loud

• Stream is a $249 smart ring and AI app that turns speech into notes, outlines, and structured thoughts.
• Why this matters: Sandbar’s Stream Ring enters what’s quickly becoming a crowded field of AI wearables, alongside devices like Friend, Pendant, and Bee. The ring format stands out and clearly takes cues from the success of products like Oura.

🏍️ TVS Motor Debuts AR Helmet with Aegis Rider at EICMA 2025

• TVS Motor Company introduced an AR Heads-Up Display helmet in collaboration with Swiss startup Aegis Rider.
• Why this matters: Anchoring information based on where it’s needed just makes sense. Navigation arrows belong in the world, placed at turns. Other details stay locked to the bike, right where riders expect them.

🏒 Sense Arena and NHLPA Bring Real NHL Players to Virtual Hockey Training

• NHL Sense Arena ’26 introduces virtual training with NHL stars and full-season gameplay using Meta Quest headsets.
• Why this matters: Sense Arena shows how simulation can democratize access to elite hockey, and by adding recognizable NHL players, it's making that experience more immersive and real than ever.

👨‍💻 Trace Opens AR Creation Platform to Public With No-Code Tools

• Trace is now available on iOS, offering free AR scene creation with premium upgrades for publishing and commercial licenses.
• Why this matters: As other AR platforms shut down, most recently Adobe Aero and prior to that Spark AR, Trace offers creators a fresh alternative. Its no-code tools and broad device support are promising, but the paid model could limit uptake with free options like Snap Lens Studio still available.

👷‍♀️ Bentley Systems and EARTHBRAIN Partner to Link Construction Workflows with Digital Twins

• EARTHBRAIN will add Bentley’s digital twin software to its Smart Construction platform for linked workflows across job sites.
• Why this matters: The teaming up of Bentley and EARTHBRAIN shows how digital twins can act as the operating layer for physical construction, turning fragmented project phases into one continuous, real-time system.

🧠 Intrinsic Introduces Vision Model That Sets New Benchmarks in Robotic Perception

• Intrinsic introduced the Intrinsic Vision Model, a new system that helps robots handle real-world factory conditions with greater precision.
• Why this matters: A perception model that’s accurate, affordable, and ready out of the box is a big deal. It pushes robotics closer to plug-and-play for high-mix applications, accelerating adoption.

🦿 Wandercraft’s Exoskeleton Gets FDA OK for Wider Use in Rehab

• Wandercraft’s Atalante X is now cleared for spinal cord injuries from C4 to L5 and multiple sclerosis.
• Why this matters: When a machine helps people walk, the impact is human, not just technical. FDA clearance means more lives can be changed, not just more devices deployed.

🌀 Tom's Take

Unfiltered POV from the editor-in-chief.

There’s a growing obsession with making robots look human. It reminds me of how the XR industry is fixated on building smartglasses that look exactly like regular eyeglasses. The long-term vision matters, but it can make us overlook what’s already working.

In XR, bulky headsets aren’t the end goal, but they are solving real problems in training, design, and collaboration today. The same is true in robotics. Semi-humanoid and task-specific machines are quietly doing useful work, yet they often get overlooked for not fitting the sci-fi ideal.

This week, Xpeng’s humanoid robot drew headlines for looking almost human, so much so, in fact, that the company’s founder even unzipped the robot's suit on stage to prove it wasn’t a person inside. It was a flashy and viral-inducing presentation, but it showed how much attention still goes to form over function.

Chasing the human form isn’t wrong, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of progress. The robots moving materials, delivering packages, or assisting in hospitals are already proving their worth. Like headsets in spatial computing, they’re the stepping stones that make the future possible.

Now is the time to focus on function over form and to value the spatial devices that can excel at tasks using a form factor that is best suited to achieve that. When we rush too fast toward a distant ideal, we risk missing the real progress happening right in front of us.

🔮 What’s Next

3 signals pointing to what’s coming next.

1. Spatial Tech Delivers Health Gains
   Clinical results are beginning to show how spatial technology can improve care. Rendever received a $4.5 million NIH grant after clinical studies found its social VR programs reduce loneliness and strengthen family connections for older adults living at home. Wandercraft earned FDA clearance to expand its self-balancing exoskeleton after trials showed it can safely help people with upper-level spinal injuries and multiple sclerosis walk again.
2. Robotaxis Go Global
   Autonomous ride services are rolling out in major international markets. Uber and WeRide have launched self-driving robotaxi rides in Riyadh. This is Uber’s first autonomous service in Saudi Arabia. In Shenzhen, Pony.ai received the city’s first permit to operate fully driverless taxis across all districts without safety drivers.
3. Driverless Systems Expand Across the U.S.
   Autonomous transportation is expanding to more locations across major American cities. Waymo will launch fully driverless ride-hailing in San Diego, Detroit, and Las Vegas in 2026, adding to its growing network that already spans five U.S. metros. Grubhub, and Avride are piloting their sidewalk delivery robots in Jersey City, moving this service beyond college campuses.

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