Hyundai is reportedly in talks with Softbank to buy American engineering and robotics company Boston Dynamics, for as much as US$ 1 billion,. Boston Dynamics, a spin-off of MIT, is popular on Internet for its four-legged robot dog that can walk up to three miles per hour, climb terrain, avoid obstacles, see 360-degrees and perform a number of programmed task.
Though it is unclear why Hyundai may want to buy Boston Dynamics, but according to media reports, citing internal sources, it could have something to do with the walking car concepts the South Korean automaker has shown in CES 2019.
Boston Dynamics builds robots that can walk, climb, run, jump, carry heavy loads and even open doors and do backflips. These robots are impressive, amusing but sometimes a bit creepy too. In June this year, Boston Dynamics made Spot -- a 25 Kg, 4-legged canine-inspired robot -- available for the general public to purchase at a price of whopping US$74,500.
Boston Dynamics builds robots that can walk, climb, run, jump, carry heavy loads and even open doors and do backflips. These robots are impressive, amusing but sometimes a bit creepy too. In June this year, Boston Dynamics made Spot -- a 25 Kg, 4-legged canine-inspired robot -- available for the general public to purchase at a price of whopping US$74,500.
In December 2013, the robotics company was acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount, where it was managed by Android Inc.'s co-founder & CEO Andy Rubin, until his departure from Google in 2014. Google's parent Alphabet Inc. then announced the sale of the company to Japan's SoftBank Group for an undisclosed sum.
Last year in April, Boston Dynamics acquired the Silicon Valley-based 3D vision startup Kinema Systems.
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