This is no ordinary basketball story. Meet CUE6, a humanoid robot created by Toyota Motor Corporation. On September 26, 2024, in Nagakute, Aichi, Japan, CUE6 stunned the world with an incredible basketball shot from a jaw-dropping distance of 24.55 meters—over 80 feet!  

To put that in perspective, an NBA court is 94 feet long. Such feats were once the domain of legendary NBA player Stephen Curry. But Curry is human—CUE6 is a machine.  

Creating CUE6 was no overnight task. Toyota’s Research and Development team embarked on this ambitious project in 2017, challenging themselves to see if artificial intelligence could achieve human-like precision in physical tasks.  

From humble beginnings as LEGO components to the advanced humanoid robot it is today, CUE6 has come a long way. But it’s not just a machine.  

CUE6 adapts. Using artificial intelligence, it learns from its mistakes, adjusts its aim, and refines its skills in real time—just like a human athlete.  

In 2019, its predecessor, CUE3, earned a Guinness World Record with an astonishing 2,020 consecutive free throws. The test only ended because engineers decided to stop the attempt.  

With each generation, CUE evolved. Toyota added wheel mobility, ball collection systems, dribbling capabilities, and foot cameras to enhance accuracy and precision.  

Now, let’s talk about the record-breaking shot. On its first attempt, the ball grazed the rim and bounced back. But CUE6 didn’t give up. On its second try, it shot the ball with flawless precision, landing a Guinness World Record and solidifying its place in history.  

With every achievement, CUE blurs the line between human and machine—one extraordinary shot at a time.