I Found the First Companion Robot I Actually Want to Buy! | A Conversation with Shibo: Founder of Yueban Dynamics [Highway Podcast]

🚗 This is an episode of "Road Podcast" — we took the podcast on the road, chatting while driving. The relaxed atmosphere tends to draw out stories and ideas that don't surface in regular conversations.

🚥 If you've been following embodied intelligence, you've probably seen too many robots that are "strong on specs."

This week's guest on Crossing is Shibo, founder of Yueban Dynamics. Some have called him a "younger Peng Zhihui" — he's hand-built over 30 robots since freshman year, covering nearly the full stack from mechanical and hardware to software and motion control.

For this startup, Shibo chose not to design a "useful" robot, but rather a life form that can "live at home long-term."

Their newly launched product, Xiaoban, doesn't speak human language. Instead, it emits something like an "alien language." It acts spoiled, gets upset, refuses you — but strangely, these moments of "not obeying" made me feel: it really does seem alive!

From "why deliberately design a language just for it," to "95% of its body is soft material," to "using fast and slow brains to push interaction latency under 0.4 seconds," Shibo offers a very specific set of product convictions: first, companionship isn't about pleasing; second, vitality isn't cuteness; third, less is more.

This is a conversation about passion, aesthetics, engineering, being on the road, and why humans need companionship. You'll hear how a 26-year-old embodied robotics founder is using extreme aesthetics and extreme engineering to bring Doraemon into reality.

🎬 Our video podcast is now live on Koji Yang Yuancheng's WeChat Channels, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, YouTube, and other platforms.

📒 The transcript will be published on the Crossing WeChat official account.

🟢 00:00 Rapid Fire

Age, alma mater, MBTI, and zodiac sign

One-sentence product intro, funding status, team size, pre-founding experience

🟢 03:50 Building an "Alien Language" for Robots

Is language a plus or a minus?

"The more human-like it speaks, the less people might want to buy it."

You don't understand it, but you'll gradually feel what it's saying.

A middle ground between pet and non-pet.

🟢 05:48 Good Products Aren't Built by Stacking Features

Making "movement" the primary channel for emotional expression.

When "spoken content" drops to 8%, design priorities completely shift.

Arm solution: continuous deformation body, making the arms go "duang duang."

Soft shell: 90%+ soft material coverage.

"Alien-cute creature": not a cat or dog, not a child, not humanoid.

🟢 08:41 No "Reasoning" Robots

Pricing, and pricing strategy.

Once you bring it home, how do you keep it from gathering dust?

The goal isn't "cuteness," it's "vitality."

Robots should be allowed to be "less pleasing."

🟢 11:52 Fast/Slow Brains + Cloud Long-Range Memory

Purpose of cloud long-range memory: driving multi-dimensional growth and dynamic evolution of personality parameters.

Edge fast brain 1.7B, slow brain 7B: what does each handle? Why this division of labor?

Pushing latency under 0.4 seconds.

"Motion generation": even for the same sentence, same scenario, never repeating the same movements.

🟢 15:26 Timing for Entrepreneurship

Why wait until 2026 to make this?

Language models + vision models + VLA/WAM architecture development: which one truly changed product feasibility?

Startup timing: psychologically/capability/experience ready + saw industry opportunity + found entry point.

🟢 24:13 Companionship vs. Pleasing

Do you want something that always goes along with you, or a "companion" that has emotions and walks away?

"Not pleasing but makes you feel accompanied."

"You look ugly!" — how would you interpret its upset?

🟢 28:45 If It Stays at My Home for a Year

What happens on day one?

What about after a full year?

Eyes as carriers of emotional expression.

Pupil/sclera/pattern parametric control, making the gaze look more "alive."

🟢 31:11 "I Have a Talent for Making Robots"

First robot and the sense of accomplishment.

"So happy I'd lie in bed at night rewatching my own videos on repeat."

Shifting from creator mindset to founder mindset: from "making robots for my own satisfaction" to "making users satisfied."

"Pragmatic + romantic": romantic is the vision, pragmatic is the delivery.

🟢 37:02 Cuteness Isn't the Destination, Vitality Is the Goal

Two foundational capabilities: home robot foundation + emotional interaction model foundation = "vitality."

What is the emotional brain: division between high-level decision-making and low-level operations

🟢 46:55 "No Excuse for Engineer"

"No excuses, analyze the reasons."

A memory of companionship with a loach.

Wanting to make "goodbye" less cruel.

🟢 49:56 Meaningful Moments

Bringing Doraemon into reality.

"Wanting to build a robot that can truly keep me company."

When the robot stood before everyone in complete form, couldn't help but tear up.

Welcome to subscribe to Crossing: 🚦 We follow the industry transformations and new entrepreneurial opportunities brought by the new wave of AI technology.

🚦 Crossing is Steve Jobs's metaphor for Apple — standing at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, where great products are born. AI is transforming every industry. We seek out, interview, and bring together a new generation of AI founders and active builders in the AI era. Together with them, we explore and embrace new changes, new possibilities.

👦🏻 Host Koji: I founded Crossing, launched AI Hacker House — a community space for a new generation of AI founders — and serve as Venture Partner at ZhenFund. I believe technology, especially AI, represents the greatest value creation opportunity of our generation. Koji on Jike, Koji's website