Humanoid Robots Pour Coffee, Fold Laundry at CES. Painfully Slowly

At the CES trade show in Las Vegas this week, robots poured coffee, played ping pong, dealt card hands and folded laundry — all within a few feet of one another.

Human-inspired robots, aptly called humanoids, have emerged as the tech industry’s big bet on what comes next. They stand erect, like people, although they can’t always walk. And they can move through the world as people do, use the same tools and perform similar tasks — but ultimately more efficiently. Or at least that’s the goal.