S.Korean Naver's robotics ambitions challenged by 5G on-the-ground realities

A robot using 5G network moves during a demonstration at the Naver 1784 company in Seongnam, South Korea, May 13, 2022. Picture taken May 13, 2022. REUTERS/ Heo Ran

SEONGNAM, South Korea (Reuters) - On weekdays, South Korean tech company Naver Corp's new headquarters near Seoul resembles a scene straight out of a science-fiction movie, with some 40 robots ambling across floors and delivering parcels and Starbucks coffee to humans.

The Rookies, as the robots are called, weave their way between people and even take a see-through elevator reserved for them to traverse the building's 28 floors. Crucially for Naver, the Rookies' brains are stored in the cloud and connected to the robots via a private superfast 5G network.