Era of Humanoid Robots Is Here. US Needs Control: Thomas Black

For an industry that’s only just getting started, there’s a lot of hype around humanoid robots.

You can thank Elon Musk and his bold pronouncements around Tesla Inc.’s Optimusrobot. Morgan Stanley also threw gasoline on the hype fire with its forecastof nearly 1 billion humanoids in service by 2050 amid a $5 trillion market. And then there are the slick internet videos showing human-shaped robots doing back flips, cartwheels and other spectacular feats.

The reality is that most people overestimate what robots can do at this point in their development. It’s also true that humanoid robots have advanced ...