Humans Are No Match For This Sprinting Robot

Despite Cassie legitimately breaking a world record in a 100m run, your average human isn’t in much danger of being chased down by robot overlords just yet. Cassie’s new 24.73-second world record specifically pertains to bipedal robots, not humans — in fact, the current human world record for 100m is still held by Usain Bolt at less than half the time (9.58 seconds).

Obviously, this means Olympic- and professional-level runners are in the clear, but non-professional runners will (possibly) be fine, too. Cassie’s run breaks down to a speed of roughly 9 miles per hour, which isn’t too shabby. And while the average human running speed fluctuating somewhere between 6.2 and 7.3 mph doesn’t sound promising (via Strava), that average jumps to around 12 mph when someone really pushes it — say, for example, if they’re running for their lives from a robot. 

The robot does already have one big advantage that humans simply can’t beat, however: it never gets tired. While humans will only be able to sustain their fastest running speeds for a little while, a robot can continue on for as long as its battery has enough juice to keep it moving. On top of that, the robot doesn’t have to worry about being taken down by an unexpected muscle cramp, and it never requires sleep. Those benefits no doubt also come in handy when robots engage in elaborate and surprisingly smooth dance numbers.