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12 December 2020Spot, the

Boston Dynamics

robot dog

, passes into Hyundai's hands, as do the company's other products, including Atlas, the humanoid robot.



The South Korean multinational in the automotive sector has announced that it will acquire from SoftBank the control of 80% of the American robotics company, a transaction worth 1.1 billion dollars.

It is the third transfer of ownership for Boston Dynamics, after Google and the Japanese Softbank, which will keep the remaining 20% ​​of the company.  



More robots in the automotive

The goal is to combine the expertise of Boston Dynamics - which, in addition to the famous Spot, designs industrial robots and for telemedicine - with Hyundai's experience in the mobility sector.

Possible applications range from autonomous driving, to connectivity, to smart factories and to artificial intelligence applied to the car, in a technological revolution that involves production, logistics, construction and automation.  



The news was leaked months ago and confirmation comes after Chung Eui-sun, new president of Hyundai Motor Group, pledged to reduce the group's dependence on traditional car manufacturing systems, saying robotics will account for 20 percent. of the company's future activities.



Chung will personally own a 20% stake in Boston Dynamics, while Hyundai Motor and its affiliates, Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Glovis, will own a combined 60% stake.



An offshoot of MIT

Boston Dynamics,

born in 1992 as a spin-off of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT of Boston

, has had investments from Google, which bought it in 2013 and sold it to SoftBank in 2017.



"Hyundai has to prove that Boston Dynamics can be commercially successful and is able to compete with cheaper Chinese competitors, ”said Koh Tae-bong, an analyst at Hi Investment & Securities.