This is the shocking moment a marathon-running robot smashed into pieces after tripping – before being dramatically carried away on a stretcher by a medical crew.

It was not even close as a bright-red Chinese humanoid named “Lightning” lived up to its name in a half-marathon pitting humans against robots, smoking its competition on Sunday.

Ian says the humanoid robot market is growing, but there are still some kinks that need to be worked out before they become viable workers.

While the malfunction elicited guffaws online, techsperts warn that these cybernetic pratfalls could signal something more alarming as bots become increasingly embedded in everyday life, as these consumer-grade machines can come apart when the rubber hits the road.