📬 Remix Reality Insider: The Piggyback Strategy for Physical AI

Your weekly briefing on the systems, machines, and forces reshaping reality.

🛰️ The Signal

This week’s defining shift.

Existing infrastructure is becoming the distribution layer for Physical AI.

The most important moves in autonomy this week were not about new sensors, new robots, or new models. They were about how real-world AI is scaling by plugging into systems that already work.

Instead of building everything from scratch, Physical AI is spreading by plugging into the world as it exists today.

This week’s news surfaced signals like these:

• Baidu's Apollo Go launched fully driverless rides for the public in Abu Dhabi as part of a phased rollout supported by AutoGo’s existing local fleet and operations in the Emirates.
• WeRide put Robotaxi booking directly inside WeChat, using a super app with over a billion users, so people could hail a ride without downloading anything new.
• Wing and Walmart expanded drone delivery to 150 more stores, wiring aerial logistics directly into Walmart’s national fulfillment network that already moves millions of packages every day.

Why this matters: The biggest gains in Physical AI are coming from integration, not breakthroughs. Scale is being driven by distribution.

🧠 Reality Decoded

Your premium deep dive.

This week’s editorial focuses on Onassis ONX, the Onassis Foundation’s global platform for art and technology, and its growing network of studios, funding, and exhibition programs for experimental XR artists. It offers a window into how immersive culture is actually getting built, beyond one-off projects or festivals.

Three points stood out:

• XR needs real infrastructure, not just good ideas: Big immersive projects don’t happen on inspiration alone. They require studios, tools, technical help, funding, and places to show the work.
• Immersive culture moves forward through connected networks: Progress happens when artists, technologists, institutions, festivals, and funders are linked together, so projects don’t get stuck in isolation.
• Lasting impact comes from steady support, not one-off projects: XR grows when support is consistent over time, rather than limited to short-term, project-by-project funding.

Key Takeaway:
Cultural XR grows when artists are supported from idea to exhibition. ONX shows one way to build that support in a single, connected system.

📡 Weekly Radar

Your weekly scan across the spatial computing stack.

🚗 Baidu and AutoGo Launch Driverless Ride-Hailing Service in Abu Dhabi

• The AutoGo app now offers fully autonomous rides to the public on Yas Island, with no human driver on board.
• Why this matters: This is one of the first fully driverless ride-hailing services approved for commercial use in Abu Dhabi and open to the public. That makes it a key milestone for autonomous deployment in the region.

🏭 Humanoid Robots Trialed at Siemens Factory in Logistics Test

• Humanoid’s HMND 01 robot completed a two-week live trial at a Siemens facility, automating tote handling tasks.
• Why this matters: Lab wins don’t count in ops. This POC shows why field trials matter, real constraints, real throughput, real stakes. That’s the only way to prove a robot is ready to earn its place on the floor.

🧠 Skild AI Secures $1.4B Series C to Scale Omni-Bodied Robotics Intelligence

• SoftBank led the round, joined by NVIDIA's NVentures, Bezos Expeditions, and strategic investors including Samsung, LG, and Salesforce Ventures.
• Why this matters: Skild is combining a general-purpose robotics model with early commercial traction. This raise gives it runway to scale further across deployments and data sources.

🤖 ByteDance Joins Alibaba-Backed X Square Robot in $140M Series A++

• X Square Robot closed a $140 million Series A++ round with participation from ByteDance, HongShan, and other Chinese investors.
• Why this matters: With investors like ByteDance and Alibaba, X Square Robot is pushing to become a full-stack AI play grounded in the real world.

🥽 Vuzix and Avegant Collaborate on Compact Binocular AR Glasses Reference Design

• Joint reference design combines Avegant’s AG-30L3 light engine with Vuzix waveguide optics in a lightweight form factor.
• Why this matters: Pairing Avegant’s micro-display with Vuzix optics tackles some of AR’s hardest hardware problems, size, weight, and clarity, by letting each player focus on what they do best.

🛻 HARMAN’s Ready Vision AR HUD Now in Production Vehicles Across Europe

• The Ready Vision AR HUD is in series production, projecting real-time driving data into the driver’s view.
• Why this matters: HARMAN's AR HUD in production means more people in Europe will have a chance to experience what may be their first time with heads-up augmented reality.

😎 Pimax Shows Off Final Production Models of New PCVR Headsets

• Pimax revealed the production versions of the Crystal Super Micro-OLED, Dream Air, and Dream Air SE during its CES 2026 showcase.
• Why this matters: High-resolution micro-OLED and refined optics directly affect how convincing and comfortable PCVR feels, especially over long sessions.

🎬 1X NEO Uses Generated Video to Act in the Real World

• 1XWM uses video generation to predict how a task should unfold, then extracts robot actions directly from the video.
• Why this matters: 1XWM is a video-pretrained world model used for control. It imagines how a task will unfold and then executes that on a real robot. This goes beyond simulation to turn video prediction directly into action.

📷 NODAR Releases Software-Only 3D Perception Tools for Any Camera Platform

• NODAR’s stereo vision engine is now available as licensable software, decoupled from proprietary hardware.
• Why this matters: Decoupling perception from hardware unlocks distribution through faster evaluation, leaner stacks, and broader adoption.

🌀 Tom's Take

Unfiltered POV from the editor-in-chief.

This week I took my first Zoox ride.

It was the first robotaxi I have taken that was purpose-built for autonomy. It did not look like a car that could drive itself. There was no steering wheel. It felt like my own personal shuttle, and the form factor definitely made it feel like I was riding in something straight out of a sci-fi film.

Inside, Zoox uses a four-by-four layout, with two chairs facing each other. This format is great for conversation with others, but when you are in there by yourself, your only real view is out the two large sliding windows on the sides of the vehicle.

The ride itself was very enjoyable. Twinkling lights on the ceiling, a curated playlist playing, and the streets of San Francisco passing by from the comfort of my own personal pod with no one I needed to interact with.

About 10 minutes in, I started thinking less about how the vehicle was driving and more about what you actually do in this space. Of course, I could, and did, pull out my phone and watch TikTok. But that felt like a missed opportunity.

If the vehicle knows I am alone, why not offer more? Screens for video calls or gaming. A small table to work on a computer or have a meal. Or even a cabin that reconfigures itself to feature the view of San Francisco at night instead of forcing me to look at the vehicles driving next to me through the windows on the side.

Zoox’s autonomy is impressive. But what really stood out to me was the form factor. If the car no longer needs to be a car, what should the interior become for the people inside it?

🔮 What’s Next

3 signals pointing to what’s coming next.

1. Capital is flowing to the software layer of Physical AI
   Mytra’s $120M raise and Skild’s $1.4B Series C show that investors are increasingly backing the brains, platforms, and data systems that make robots useful, not just the robots themselves. The market is betting that software will be the main lever for scaling physical systems across warehouses, factories, and real-world deployments.
2. AR hardware progress is moving through partnerships, not lone inventors
   Vuzix teaming up with Avegant and Cellid working with Foxconn partners show that better AR glasses are emerging from coordinated teams of optics specialists, display makers, and manufacturers rather than single companies working alone.
3. World models are becoming a core layer of robot control
   1X’s video-pretrained 1XWM system and X Square Robot’s WALL-A foundation model show how companies are using predictive world models to guide real-world action. Rather than scripting every behavior, robots are increasingly reasoning about how the physical world will unfold before they move.

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🛠️ This newsletter uses a human-led, AI-assisted workflow, with all final decisions made by editors.