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Russia's New Combat Robot Is Basically a Glorified RC Car with Guns

Despite the android's sophistication, President Vladimir Putin seemed visibly bored by its antics at a recent demo.

The demonstration of the new robot's abilities. Credit: ​RT/YouTube.

On Tuesday, the Russian military unveiled a prototype of its new combat robot, designed to look and act like our favorite science fiction androids. Vladimir Putin himself traveled to the town of Klimovsk, where the robot was developed by the Russian Defense Institute "Tochmash," to watch the robo-soldier in action.

Putin looked on as the robot fired five gunshots, and drove an ATV cautiously around a snowy track with a random fire in the background. But despite the sophistication of the android, the Russian President seemed visibly bored by its antics. Perhaps he was imagining something more in the vein of the Terminator, and less like an anemic RoboCop, or a droid you might find at a Jawa yard sale. If I was told that I was going to watch a new warrior robot take a quad bike out for a spin, I probably would've been disappointed how epically unintimidating the end result was, too.

Indeed, the cherry on the cake is that this robot wasn't even driving the vehicle autonomously—​it was operated remotely by a Tochmash engineer. Unless further details were left out of Russia Today's video coverage of the unveiling, it's basically a glorified remote control toy car. But with guns.

According to Sputnik News, ​future versions of the robot will be able to provide emergency first aid, assist in the construction of infrastructure, and travel over difficult terrains. The project is part of a larger Russian initiative to revitalize the military with "autonomous tanks, unmanned vehicles, and other weapons one won't be ashamed of in the 21st century," ​according to Russia Today.

That all sounds interesting, if it does come to fruition. But for now, Putin's "meh" expression pretty much sums up our feelings about the terrifying new robot soldier that appears to drive at a stultifying four miles an hour.