For those who haven’t read the article: Hyundai is the owner of Boston Dynamics since 2021. Hyundai wants Boston Dynamics to build more robots for sale, not for them:
The CES presentation promised the capability to make 30,000 in one year, and it sounds like that’s what Hyundai wants to see as soon as possible. Boston Dynamics is reportedly making four Atlas robots per month as it figures out how to ramp up large-scale manufacturing.
What a clickbait title…
Why would hyundai of all companies want to go all in on human form robots? They should know as car manufacturers that robots don’t need to be humanoid to work well. A made to tailor robot is almost always the better solution. Need a robot to do your dishes? It’s called a dishwasher. Need a robot to mow your lawn? It’s called an automated lawnmower. What niche does a humanoid robot slot into that you can’t do with some system purpose designed for your needs?
Asimov addressed this in one of his robot novels. Need your lawn mowed? If you already have a mower, your humanoid robot can use it. Dishes? It can stand at the sink and do them. Drive you somewhere? It fits in your car and can use the controls designed for humans. And if the robot breaks down, a human can take over.
Basically, instead of one robot per task, have one robot to do all the tasks using tools designed for humans.
But you’re right, if the robot is only going to do one thing like work on an assembly line for cars, a custom single-task design makes sense.
Maybe its to saturate production so nobody else gets them first?
Hyundai is the owner of Boston Dynamics. They want them to build more robots for sale, they don’t need the robots, only the profit.
So it begins…
