Agent types
Six physical agent types, each with flagship deployments
| Agent type | Where it operates | Flagship deployments | Registry incidents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robotaxis and autonomous vehicles | Public roads | Waymo One, Apollo Go, Tesla Robotaxi | 6 |
| Humanoid robots | Factories, warehouses, early homes | Figure 02 at BMW Spartanburg, UBTech Walker S2, Agility Digit at GXO | 0 |
| Industrial robots and cobots | Factory floors | Hyundai Metaplant America, Xiaomi Changping smart factory | 1 |
| Autonomous trucks | Highways, ports, oil fields | Aurora Driver, Kodiak Driver at Atlas Energy, Pony.ai Robotruck | 0 |
| Drones | Low-altitude airspace | Zipline, Meituan Drone (Keeta Drone), Amazon Prime Air MK30 | 0 |
| Fleets and swarms | Warehouses, cities, battlefields | Amazon Robotics with DeepFleet, EHang drone show system, DAWG (successor to Replicator) | 0 |
Attack surface
Command and control rates very significant or critical for five of six physical agent types
Deployments
17 flagship deployments, six of them in China
| Deployment | Agent type | Developer / operator | Scale | Status | Controls declared |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waymo One | Robotaxis and autonomous vehicles | Waymo (Alphabet) / Waymo | 500,000+ paid rides a week; 4,000+ vehicles (Sep 2026) | Commercial | Software recall after school-bus passings; publishes crash-rate data |
| Apollo Go | Robotaxis and autonomous vehicles | Baidu / Baidu; Dubai Taxi in Dubai | About 1 million driverless rides in Q2 2026; 23 million+ cumulative (Jun 2026) | Commercial; some Wuhan cars back to safety drivers | Safety drivers reinstated in parts of Wuhan |
| Tesla Robotaxi | Robotaxis and autonomous vehicles | Tesla | About 2.4 million paid miles (Jun 2026) | Commercial | Safety monitors in many cars |
| Figure 02 at BMW Spartanburg | Humanoid robots | Figure AI / BMW | Pilot fleet; retired Nov 19, 2025 (Nov 2025) | Retired | Not disclosed |
| UBTech Walker S2 | Humanoid robots | UBTech / Chinese automakers and factories | 1,079 sold in 2025 (2025) | Commercial | Autonomous battery swap keeps units on shift |
| Agility Digit at GXO | Humanoid robots | Agility Robotics / GXO Logistics | 100,000+ totes moved (2025) | Commercial (robots as a service) | Fenced cell separated from workers |
| Hyundai Metaplant America | Industrial robots and cobots | Hyundai, Boston Dynamics and others / Hyundai Motor Group | About 850 robots (2025) | Operating | Not disclosed |
| Xiaomi Changping smart factory | Industrial robots and cobots | Xiaomi | Lights-out phone line (2024) | Operating | Not disclosed |
| Aurora Driver | Autonomous trucks | Aurora Innovation / Aurora for Charger, Value Truck and Detmar | 500,000+ driverless miles; 20 to 25 trucks expected (Sep 2026) | Commercial, scaling | Cab beacons; runs only in validated ODD; no hazmat |
| Kodiak Driver at Atlas Energy | Autonomous trucks | Kodiak AI / Atlas Energy | 35 driverless trucks (Jun 2026) | Commercial | Readiness measure at 91% before long-haul launch |
| Pony.ai Robotruck | Autonomous trucks | Pony.ai / Pony.ai with China Merchants Port and Sinotrans | Count not disclosed (Aug 2026) | Commercial at port; platoons in testing | Lead-truck platoon design |
| Zipline | Drones | Zipline | 2 million+ deliveries; 125 million+ miles (Jan 2026) | Commercial | Not disclosed |
| Meituan Drone (Keeta Drone) | Drones | Meituan | 780,000+ orders on 70 routes (Dec 2025) | Commercial | Fixed-route network |
| Amazon Prime Air MK30 | Drones | Amazon | Hundreds of thousands of packages in 2026 (2026) | Commercial | Not disclosed |
| Amazon Robotics with DeepFleet | Fleets and swarms | Amazon | 1 million robots (Jul 2025) | Operating | Fleet-wide route coordination |
| EHang drone show system | Fleets and swarms | EHang | 22,580 drones from one computer (Feb 2026) | Record set | One central controller |
| DAWG (successor to Replicator) | Fleets and swarms | US DoD with Shield AI and others / US Department of Defense | $54.6 billion FY2027 request (May 2026) | Funding request | Human judgment requirement |
Incidents
Seven of the 19 registry incidents involve physical agents
| Incident | Date | Agent page | Found by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uber Test Vehicle Kills Pedestrian in Tempe | Mar 2018 | Robotaxis and autonomous vehicles | Developer |
| Cruise Robotaxi Drags a Pedestrian | Oct 2023 | Robotaxis and autonomous vehicles | Developer |
| Packing Robot Kills a Worker in Goseong | Nov 2023 | Industrial robots and cobots | Deployer |
| Tesla Recalls Autopilot After NHTSA Investigation | Dec 2023 | Robotaxis and autonomous vehicles | Third party |
| Xiaomi SU7 Crashes on Assisted Driving | Mar 2025 | Robotaxis and autonomous vehicles | Not disclosed |
| Apollo Go Robotaxi Falls Into a Construction Pit | Aug 2025 | Robotaxis and autonomous vehicles | Third party |
| Waymo Robotaxis Pass Stopped School Buses | Sep 2025 | Robotaxis and autonomous vehicles | Developer |
Rules
Physical agents run mostly on exemptions and general machinery law
| Rule | Jurisdiction | What it requires | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| FMCSA warning-device exemption | US federal | Driverless trucks: cab beacons, crash reports in five days | Oct 7, 2026 |
| California DMV AV regulations | California | Robotaxis and trucks: emergency geofence, remote operator licensing | Apr 28, 2026 |
| MIIT, MPS and MOT ICV supervision measures | China | Tighter road-test supervision | Apr 14, 2026 |
| FAA Part 108 | US federal | Beyond-line-of-sight drone operations | Pending |
| EU Machinery Regulation 2023/1230 | EU | Machinery with self-evolving behavior | Jan 20, 2027 |
| DoD Directive 3000.09 | US military | Human judgment over autonomous weapons | In force |
Status colors: green in force, blue voluntary standard or framework, amber adopted and phasing in, gray draft or pending, red withdrawn.
Record
Page Record
- Agent class
- Physical
- Datasets
- ai_deployments.csv (17 flagship rows); ai_attack_surface.csv (60 rows); ai_incidents.csv (7 linked)
- Sources
- Listed on each agent type page
- Last verified
- October 2026