If you see what looks like an ambulance with a set of flashing lights weaving through Tokyo traffic, it might not be rushing to save a human. GMO Internet Group is unleashing what it calls Japan’s first “humanoid ambulance” on the streets of Tokyo this month.
A maintenance van designed to make house calls when humanoid robots break down, the ambulance carries diagnostic equipment, spare parts, repair tools and engineers to wherever a robot has stopped working. If a robot can’t be fixed at the roadside, there’s a spare humanoid on board ready to be subbed in and take over on the spot. Meanwhile, the broken unit is ferried back to GMO’s repair base at its Humanoid Lab in Shibuya, Tokyo.
There’s only one ambulance stationed at its Tokyo headquarters for now, and it won’t be used to respond to any and all stricken robots; the service only covers humanoids deployed by GMO AI & Robotics Trading (also known as GMO AIR), with dispatch decided on a case-by-case basis. That’s the same company behind the humanoid robots working as baggage handlers at a Tokyo airport. It’s currently running a trial of Unitree-built machines at Haneda in a collaboration with JAL Ground Service through 2028.
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