Broken Robots on Tokyo's Streets Now Get Rescued by GMO's New Humanoid Robot Ambulance

If you spot a van flashing purple emergency lights and looking suspiciously like an ambulance speeding through the streets of Tokyo, chances are it's not carrying an injured patient — it's carrying a humanoid robot that's stopped working. Starting this month, GMO Internet Group's subsidiary GMO AI & Robotics Trading (GMO AIR) has deployed Japan's first "humanoid robot ambulance" on Tokyo streets, dedicated to handling robots that suddenly break down on the job.

The vehicle is really more like a mobile repair station. Inside, it's stocked with diagnostic equipment, spare parts, repair tools, and comes with an engineer riding along. If a robot can be fixed on-site, the engineer handles it right there; if not, the van carries a spare humanoid robot that can be swapped in on the spot to take over the job, while the broken unit gets hauled back to GMO's Humanoid Lab in Shibuya for further repairs.

Currently, only one such ambulance is stationed at the Tokyo headquarters, and it only serves humanoid robots deployed by GMO AIR itself. Whether it gets dispatched is decided case by case by the company — it's not like any robot breakdown anywhere can just call one in. GMO AIR is also the company behind the Unitree-made robots working as baggage handlers at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, a project run in partnership with JAL Ground Service that's set to continue its trial run through 2028.

GMO AIR engineer Shota Takizawa said at a press event covered by Euronews: "As humanoid robots become more widespread, this kind of service is going to be needed." The ambulance's exterior and interior design came from Yasumichi Morita, a designer at Tokyo-based design firm GLAMOROUS, who drew inspiration from emergency vehicles around the world. The van sports a purple light bar on the roof and "Humanoid Ambulance" printed on its body.

The idea didn't come out of nowhere. GMO AIR CEO Tomohiro Uchida said that in the past, whenever a robot broke down, the entire unit had to be sent off for repair, leaving on-site service disrupted. "From that experience, we came up with the idea of providing a substitute robot." GMO Group's core business is actually internet infrastructure — running domains, hosting, and similar services. Its robotics division doesn't manufacture robots itself; instead, it acts as an agent for makers like Unitree and builds service offerings around their machines.

Japan's government unveiled an AI and robotics strategy this past April aiming to capture over 30% of the global robotics market by 2040 and grow the domestic industry to roughly $135 billion. One ambulance obviously can't carry numbers like that on its own, but GMO is choosing to build up repair service experience now — before humanoid robots truly become widespread and breakdown demand surges.