These service robots could be coming to car showrooms – and I met them
These service robots could be coming to car showrooms – and I met them
Steve FowlerTue, May 5, 2026 at 12:42 PM UTC
0
Car maker Chery's AiMoga robots could be working in its car showrooms soon (Chery)
Car showrooms could soon have a new member of staff greeting customers and answering questions. But they won’t be wearing a shiny suit or offering you the latest finance deal – they could be robots.
Chinese car maker Chery, the company behind Omoda and Jaecoo, is pushing into humanoid robotics with a new brand called AiMoga, using technology developed for its cars to build robot assistants for showrooms, hospitals, shopping centres and even home life.
I met the robots at Chery’s International Business Summit at the company’s headquarters in Wuhu, China. They also had a role at the Auto China 2026 motor show in Beijing, where they greeted guests, interacted with visitors and helped bring a bit of theatre to the stand.
Chery says the idea is not only to show off a bit of futuristic tech, but to take the know-how gained from making cars and apply it to service robots that can be used in the real world.
Robot police will soon be directing traffic in China and could also be issuing parking tickets (Steve Fowler)
The company is looking at three main uses to begin with, across more than 50 countries. One version will act as a traffic police robot, directing traffic and issuing digital parking tickets. Another will be used in hospitals, guiding visitors around busy buildings. A third will appear in car showrooms, helping customers with directions, answers to basic questions, and product information.
That last one is where the link with Chery’s cars is clearest. The company says there is plenty of shared technology between its vehicles and its robots, including digital platforms, cameras, lidar and sensing systems. Sharing that technology should help lower costs and make the robots easier to roll out at scale.
One of the humanoid robots is called Mornine, and Chery says it’s the world’s first humanlike robot to obtain full EU certification for both its hardware and software. That includes three accreditations: CE-MD for machinery safety, CE-RED for radio equipment and EN 18031 for cybersecurity and data protection.
In plain English, Chery is saying this is not just a robot built for a show stand. It has been designed with the sort of safety, connectivity and data protection standards needed if it is going to be used around the public.
Mornine can walk at one metre per second, which is about 2.2mph. It has 41 degrees of freedom, including hands with 12 degrees of movement each, helping it can carry out more complex, human-like actions. Chery also says it has a five-way sensor matrix that allows centimetre-level obstacle avoidance and path planning in busy spaces.
There is also a silicone bionic face and a library of human-like movements designed to make interactions feel more natural. Whether customers will find that reassuring or slightly unnerving remains to be seen, but Chery clearly sees this as a major part of its future.
The robot is powered by what Chery calls a dual-core intelligent brain, using Chinese AI tech DeepSeek and a large language model called CheryGPT to understand its surroundings, process different types of information and answer questions. It can hold natural conversations in 10 languages, with Chery claiming an accuracy rate of up to 95 per cent.
AiMoga's robot dog called Argos could be used for deliveries where wheeled robots couldn't get (Steve Fowler)
The company also says the robot can be trained with industry-specific knowledge in just one hour using cloud-based configuration tools. That could mean a showroom robot learning the details of a new car range, a hospital robot being taught its way around a building or a shopping centre assistant being with new store information.
Advertisement
Chery says the AiMoga robot is already being used in automotive sales settings at Chery stores in Malaysia, with expansion now underway in China. Future uses could include shopping mall guides, cinema services and smart home assistants.
Chery Chairman Yin Tongyue said: “We hope that we can have one robot per person or several robots per person,” adding: “The robot industry could be bigger than the auto industry.”
For Chery, the move into robotics is being presented as both a technology play and a new business opportunity. Yin described it as a “second growth curve and second profitability channel,” and said: “It’s about how robots can solve problems in real-world scenarios.”
He also made it clear who Chery has in its sights. “We have to compete with Elon Musk,” he said, referring to Tesla’s plans to build one million of its own Optimus robots. “We learn from Toyota and Tesla – quality from Toyota and innovation from Tesla.”
Robot police have been bought by the local authority in Chery's home town of Wuhu (Steve Fowler)
And, in a line that sums up why car companies are suddenly so interested in robots, he said: “Cars are mobile robots.”
That thinking was echoed by Shi Li, Deputy Director-General of Anhui Provincial Department of Industry and IT, who said the industry should “prioritise humanoid robots” and called it “a natural extension of automotive.”
Chery is also working on a robot dog called Argos, which is expected to be used for deliveries. That puts Chery into another fast-growing area of robotics, where four-legged machines could be used to carry goods, make local deliveries or operate in places that are less suitable for wheels.
Guibing Zhang, president of Chery International, said robots could become useful both at home and at work. “We can create a very good assistant for living and also the working side,” he said.
He also suggested robots could be used for jobs that are unpleasant or unsafe, rather than simply replacing people. “They no longer take jobs because actually too many jobs now in the society have bad conditions or are even dangerous. So, we need to find some different robots – they can do some risk or dangerous situations.”
Zhang added: “We want to support the people to release more time, so sometimes they could enjoy the time holidaying or visit the family or something.”
He also announced a smaller robot aimed at supporting children with busy parents, suggesting Chery sees the technology moving well beyond car showrooms and into the family home.
For now, though, the most likely place UK drivers may first meet one of Chery’s robots is beside a car in a showroom, rather than in the kitchen. And if Chery’s plans come together, the next person to welcome you to a car retailer may not be a person at all.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
