Hyundai bought Boston Dynamics, but they’re keeping the irreverent attitude. First piece of evidence: this fun video showing Spot dancing to the music of K-pop boy band BTS.
Hyundai bought Boston Dynamics as SoftBank drew back from their robotics investment. They stopped making Pepper, their best-known robot. Known as the first humanoid social robot, Pepper could recognize faces and even basic human emotions.
But without high enough demand to drive profits, SoftBank had to back off. SoftBank retains a 20% share in the business, and Hyundai has the controlling 80%.
Hyundai hasn’t said exactly what they plan to do with Spot. Here’s what they said in a press release about robots:
Hyundai Motor Group has invested substantially in development of future technologies, including in fields such as autonomous driving technology, connectivity, eco-friendly vehicles, smart factories, advanced materials, artificial intelligence (AI), and robots.
They’re starting with dance.