A humanoid machine called Apollo has just taken a tentative, slightly jerky, but significant step forward in the robot revolution.

The 5’8″ tall robot performed the first public demonstration in a real-world setting of a real-world task – in this case assembling an engine part – entirely autonomously.

Clicking two parts together with a twist of its servo-controlled wrists, and handing it to a human colleague is a basic task. But it’s also an important moment in the much-hyped world of human-like robot development.

“This is a really big day for us,” says Jeff Cardenas, chief executive of Apptronik, the US company behind Apollo.

“We’re excited to show this off, excited for the public to see the robot live and in person.”

Mercedes-Benz has announced a multimillion-pound investment in Apptronik and is trialling a handful of the humanoid robots at its factory in Berlin and another in Hungary.

Investors and industrial firms – particularly car makers with long experience of using robots in manufacturing – have been closely following the development of human-like robots.

The costs of small, lightweight components have fallen as artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and computer vision technology have led to rapid advances in the field of robots that can emulate human movement and tasks.

But despite a rising number of increasingly impressive-looking cyborgs being unveiled by tech companies in the US and Asia, few have taken their first steps out of the lab.

The Apollo robot looks small and underpowered surrounded by the huge robotic arms that weld, bolt and inspect Mercedes’ latest cars at the Berlin-Marienfelde plant.

But hosting a robot with a human “form-factor” is more than just a photo opportunity, according to Mercedes-Benz.

“There’s one big advantage,” says Jorg Burzer, head of production and supply chain management at the German car maker.

“A humanoid robot is flexible, so you can basically introduce it to an assembly line or internal logistics or quality inspection… you can basically move it from one place to another.”

Introducing a new assembly line, or upgrading an old one with traditional robotic arms is a major investment.

A robot that can be adapted to a range of tasks and work alongside humans would avoid that investment.

With hands and feet like ours, they can operate tools and work in the same workspaces as people.

Apollo can lift more than 25kg and potentially perform repetitive tasks that are, in the words of humanoid robot developers, too “dull, dirty or dangerous” for humans.

The purpose of the trial is to establish which tasks humanoid robots can usefully do and help improve the machine learning and dexterity required to do more.

“We want to try to find out what is really possible,” says Mr Burzer.

“It’s also very important to test how a humanoid robot can be integrated in running production together with our colleagues working here every day.”

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Texas-based Apptronik is reluctant to make claims as bold as some of their rivals.

“Everyone’s ready for a robot to come into their home and do all of their laundry and all the things that they don’t want to do. But it’s very early on,” says Mr Cardenas.

“Take the analogy of the shift to the personal computer. We’re in the early ’80s so at the very beginning.”

Investors seem to believe in a robot-dominated future. One recent forecast sees the humanoid market growing 20-fold in the next eight years, with predictions of a population of tens of millions of the machines by 2050.

One major hurdle is the AI brains behind them.

Apptronik admits a truly “general purpose” robot capable of functioning outside a predictable and controlled environment like a factory won’t be possible until computer intelligence can understand the real world like we do.

So-called “world models” are very much a work in progress for AI developers.

So the important questions, like when humanoid robots will steal our jobs, or whether they will go rogue and rise up against us can wait… for a little while at least.

One of Tesla’s earliest investors has told Sky News Elon Musk should step aside as its chief executive unless he gives up his new government job.

Ross Gerber said in an interview with Sky’s Business Live that the tycoon and adviser to Donald Trump had lost his focus given his widening interests and was now too “divisive”.

He cited Musk’s post-election role at the helm of the Trump administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

It has attracted public anger, and protests, over planned swingeing cuts to federal government staff.

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Mr Gerber said: “I think Tesla needs a new CEO and I decided today I was going to start saying it and so this is the first show that I’m saying it on.

“It’s time for somebody to run Tesla. The business has been neglected for too long. There are too many important things Tesla is doing, so either Elon should come back to Tesla and be the CEO of Tesla and give up his other jobs or he should focus on the government and keep doing what he is doing but find a suitable CEO of Tesla.”

Mr Gerber told presenter Darren McCaffrey that the business was “absolutely” in crisis and the appointment was among several reasons he had sold off a substantial number of shares in recent months.

A slump began shortly before Mr Trump took office, as the first salvoes of the president’s trade war were being threatened.

Tesla’s market value has plunged by more than $800bn since December and it was a further 4% down in US trading on Tuesday.

The business has been struggling on several fronts.

Electric car demand appears to have peaked across key Western markets despite steep discounting to boost appeal at a time of continued strain on consumer budgets.

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Also in the mix is cheap Chinese competition nibbling away at Tesla’s market share.

Add the potential for heightened costs due to Mr Trump’s trade war, it is of little surprise that investors are concerned.

Mr Gerber said that while Tesla’s products were undoubtedly the best around, Mr Musk only had 24 hours in the day and he had split his time too thinly since his purchase of Twitter in 2022.

He added that his social media posts and work with the president since had brought too much negative publicity to Tesla.

“The company’s reputation has just been destroyed by Elon Musk”, he said.

“Sales are plummeting so, yeh, it’s a crisis. You literally can’t sell the best product in the market place because the CEO is so divisive”.

The UK’s biggest water provider has delayed its request for even higher customer bills.

Thames Water has deferred its appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the regulator tasked with deciding if the company can raise bills by even more than initially allowed.

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In December, water regulator Ofwat determined that bills could rise 35% to about £588 annually per household by 2030.

This was challenged by the firm serving 16 million people as being insufficient. It wanted a 53% rise.

The deferment comes as Thames Water said it received six offers of new investment and announced it would finalise a bidder by June and close the fundraising process by September.

This postponement will last 18 weeks and has been approved by Ofwat.

Additional investment could result in a “market-led” solution to refinancing the company, Thames Water said.

It means its financial woes could be improved by investors rather than billpayers being charged more.

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The business was going to run out of money by 24 March, it said, but a £3bn loan from existing creditors was again given the green light on Monday.

Thames Water is struggling under a now £19bn debt pile.

It had been described as “uninvestable” by some shareholders when it failed to secure reduced fines for pollution incidents from Ofwat.

Five other water companies have challenged the amount they have been permitted to hike bills by.

Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, South East Water, Southern Water and Wessex Water all want customers to pay more.