DroidUp/Companion
Moya
China's warm-skinned answer to Aria — if the claims hold.
- Claims body-temperature, warm-to-the-touch skin
- A face that mirrors your expressions in real time
- Made by a lab with a Guinness long-walk record
Realism index
52/100
Our editorial estimate of how close this machine is to a lifelike human companion — across face, skin, movement and mind. How we score
Moya is the prototype that made the internet do a double-take in early 2026: a female-presenting robot with skin warmed to body temperature, a face that mirrors yours, and a claimed gait "92% as human as the real thing." On a phone screen, it looks like the future arriving early.
Read the fine print and the picture cools. DroidUp showed Moya at its own Shanghai headquarters — not a vetted trade-show floor — and the clip went viral through tabloids, not through robotics press. Every number you've seen (the 32–36 °C skin, the 92% gait, the facial degrees of freedom) traces back to that single unveiling and has never been independently tested. In the demos that exist, the steps are stiff and audibly mechanical; one reviewer compared the walk to moving "in heels."
We include Moya because the ambition is real and the lab behind it is genuinely credible — and because warmth and lightness are exactly the right things to chase for companionship. But treat its entire spec sheet as a marketing promise from a thinly funded startup, not as fact. If even half of it ships as claimed by late 2026, Moya becomes one of the most important machines in this directory. That's a big if.
Our verdict
The case for
- From a technically credible firm — not pure vaporware
- Targets a real need — elder care and companionship
- Lightweight and customisable
The case against
- Every headline spec is an untested maker claim
- Not shipping; the price is an estimate and the firm is thinly funded
- Demos show stiff, clicky movement and uncanny-valley faces
What it can do
- Warm silicone skin held near body temperature (claimed)
- Real-time face tracking, eye contact and micro-expressions
- Lightweight ~32 kg body, in male or female configurations
