Hyundai und Boston Dynamics stellen auf der CES den humanoiden Roboter Atlas vor – Boston Dynamics gab bekannt, dass eine Produktversion des Roboters, der beim Zusammenbau von Autos helfen soll, bereits in Produktion ist und bis 2028 in Hyundais Produktionsstätte für Elektrofahrzeuge in der Nähe von Savannah, Georgia, eingesetzt wird.

From the article

The company said a product version of the robot that will help assemble cars is already in production and will be deployed by 2028 at Hyundai’s electric vehicle manufacturing facility near Savannah, Georgia.

The South Korean carmaker holds a controlling stake in Massachusetts-based Boston Dynamics, which has been developing robots for decades and is best known for its first commercial product: the dog-like robot called Spot. A group of four-legged Spot robots opened Hyundai’s event Monday by dancing in synchrony to a K-pop song.

Hyundai also announced a new partnership with Google’s DeepMind, which will supply its artificial intelligence technology to Boston Dynamics robots. It’s a return to a familiar partnership for Google, which bought Boston Dynamics in 2013 before selling it to Japanese tech giant SoftBank several years later. Hyundai acquired it from SoftBank in 2021.

It’s rare for leading robot makers to publicly demonstrate their humanoids, in part because fumbles attract unwanted attention — such as when one of Russia’s first humanoids fell on its face in November. Robotics startups typically prefer to show off their research prototypes in videos on social media, offering them the opportunity to show the machines at their best and edit out their failings.

Boston Dynamics has always had awesome tech. I don’t think anyone could ever argue anything else. Two questions are left for them to address.

The first is whether they can integrate AI into their robots. DeepMind could be interesting, but I still have reservations.

The second is whether they have gotten their bots to a point they can effectively mass produce them. This is the one that seems to have haunted Boston Dynamics for years now.

If they can solve both of those issues, they are definitely going to be a major player.

As interesting and groundbreaking their robotics has been, they have a record of having trouble getting past the prototype stage. We’ll just have to keep watching.