US robot makers hope to beat China in humanoid race, tariffs could affect their ambitions

Tariffs weren’t on the agenda of this week’s Robotics Summit, where thousands of tech industry workers mingled with humanoid and other robot varieties and talked about how to build and sell a new generation of increasingly autonomous machines. Not on the official agenda, at least.

“Jump up to the microphones,” said keynote speaker Aaron Saunders, chief technology officer of Boston Dynamics, inviting a standing-room-only crowd to ask him questions. “And I’m the CTO, so don’t ask me about tariffs.”

The crowd laughed and complied. But as they streamed…