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Hyundai is poised to acquire an 80% stake in Boston Dynamics, maker of those fearsome robotic dogs, in a deal that values the American company at $ 1.1 billion (P53 billion). The remaining 20% of the company will be retained by its current owner, Softbank.
Boston Dynamics. You may not have heard the name, but you will have seen its videos. If you haven’t, we’ve added a few to the end of this article. The Massachusetts-based robotics company has racked up nearly 500 million YouTube views with videos of its terribly capable robots doing things that robots really shouldn’t be able to do. How to team up to open doors, somersault and jump over obstacles.
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The company says it is “the world leader in the development and deployment of highly mobile robots capable of tackling the toughest robotics challenges.” He currently builds four different types of robots. Spot (the quadruped, which costs $ 74,500 or P3.6 million to buy) and Atlas (the humanoid) are the two big hitters. Pick and Handle is apparently for picking things up and moving them around, but that’s a bit of an understatement.
So what exactly is Hyundai going to do with Boston Dynamics? Well, Hyundai says the move marks “another important step for Hyundai Motor Group towards its strategic transformation into a smart mobility solutions provider. “
Euisun chung, President of Hyundai Motor Group, said: “The synergies created by our union offer exciting new avenues for our companies to achieve our goal: to provide free and safe movement and life experiences on a higher plane for humanity. We will also contribute to society by improving its safety, protection and public health amid the global trends of aging society and digital transformation ”.
Robert Playter, CEO of Boston Dynamics, said: “We and Hyundai share a vision of the transformative power of mobility and we look forward to working together to accelerate our plans to enable the world with cutting-edge automation and continue to solve the world’s toughest robotics challenges for our customers “.
As promised, here are the videos:
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor modifications have been made.
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