Reuters Movies
Hyundai Motor to buy robot maker Boston Dynamics
It’s the corporate behind the surprisingly lifelike four-legged robots. Now Boston Dynamics is about to get a brand new proprietor. Hyundai Motor is shopping for an 80% stake within the U.S.-based agency from Japan’s SoftBank Group. The deal values the robotic maker at 1.1 billion {dollars}. Boston Dynamics creations have tried every little thing from herding sheep, to sniffing out radiation in Chernobyl. This yr the’ve even enforced social distancing: “Let’s maintain Singapore wholesome. In your personal security, and for these round you, please stand at the very least one meter aside.” The agency has, nonetheless, struggled to construct a industrial enterprise. Now Hyundai sees a chance. It desires to make use of the robotic know-how to develop automation at its unionised automobile crops. The tech might additionally play a job in designing self-driving vehicles, drones and supply robots. Hyundai says it sees robotics making up a fifth of its future enterprise. Analysts say the problem can be to point out Boston Dynamics generally is a cash maker, and compete with cheaper Chinese language rivals. The corporate was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise in 1992. It was later purchased by Google, earlier than being taken over by SoftBank in 2017.
