diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile.benchmark.vlabench b/docker/Dockerfile.benchmark.vlabench
index 0a5dbd6c7..ac5843afe 100644
--- a/docker/Dockerfile.benchmark.vlabench
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile.benchmark.vlabench
@@ -41,11 +41,30 @@ p.write_text(t.replace( \
       mujoco==3.2.2 dm-control==1.0.22 \
       open3d colorlog scikit-learn openai gdown
 
-# Download VLABench mesh assets from Google Drive. Task configs reference
-# object meshes (obj/meshes/fruit/, containers/basket/, etc.); without them
-# the task builder crashes with IndexError on random.choice([]).
-# gdown handles Google Drive's confirmation tokens for large files.
-RUN python ~/VLABench/scripts/download_assets.py --choice all
+# Download VLABench mesh assets. Task configs reference object meshes
+# (obj/meshes/fruit/, containers/basket/, etc.); without them the task builder
+# picks from an empty mesh list and crashes at task-build time.
+#
+# Preferred source: an HF Hub mirror. Set VLABENCH_ASSETS_REPO at build time
+# (e.g. --build-arg VLABENCH_ASSETS_REPO=lerobot/vlabench-assets) and we'll
+# snapshot_download the repo into VLABench's assets dir. This is the reliable
+# path for CI — Google Drive frequently returns HTTP 429 ("Too many users have
+# viewed or downloaded this file recently") on shared academic files.
+#
+# Fallback: VLABench's own gdown-based script. Best-effort only; the build
+# will NOT fail if gdown hits a Drive quota, letting us ship an image where
+# task-build may still IndexError but the rest of the pipeline is exercised.
+ARG VLABENCH_ASSETS_REPO=""
+RUN ASSETS_DIR="$HOME/VLABench/VLABench/assets" && \
+    if [ -n "${VLABENCH_ASSETS_REPO}" ]; then \
+        echo "Downloading VLABench assets from HF Hub: ${VLABENCH_ASSETS_REPO}" && \
+        python -c "from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download; \
+snapshot_download(repo_id='${VLABENCH_ASSETS_REPO}', repo_type='dataset', local_dir='${ASSETS_DIR}')"; \
+    else \
+        echo "No VLABENCH_ASSETS_REPO set — falling back to gdown (best-effort)" && \
+        python ~/VLABench/scripts/download_assets.py --choice all || \
+          echo "WARN: VLABench asset download failed (likely Google Drive quota). Env task-build may crash."; \
+    fi
 
 # Overlay the PR's source code on top of the nightly image.
 COPY --chown=user_lerobot:user_lerobot . .