Boston Dynamics' humanoid Atlas is dead, long live the ... new commercial Atlas Atlas, the humanoid robot that's been a centerpiece of Boston Dynamics' robot lineup for nearly a decade, has been retired. In its place is, well, Atlas - an all-electric version designed for commercial use. Boston Dynamics announced the retirement of the hydraulic version of Atlas (HD Atlas) in a video issued yesterday with …
I see it being called "001", where are you getting the "T"?
Since it is battery powered, and knowing the state of lithium ion batteries, I wouldn't worry too much about it taking over the world anytime soon. Having to stop and charge every hour would leave them pretty vulnerable, as would cutting the power of the building they are trying to take over. If they get nuclear power cells like T800 had then we can start to worry!
They sort of are close to the terminator naming scheme. Add a T in front of it and you're right there. A T, three numbers and increasing by each new more dangerous iteration.
Nuclear power cells plus a lot improved capabilities would be terrifying. But with 50 or maybe 60 plus percent and rising of world population living in cities and all of these robots being planned to be remotely connected, having them one day as affordable "nice harmless" household aids would be enough to take out well over half of the world population in less then half an hour if they synchronized became murderous freaks. Probably 90%+ of world population would be affected if these things became affordable enough. They don't need a lot of autonomy nor weapons when being employed in houses, factories and schools without much other security measures then some software that says "do not harm" (because they are considered harmless) if someone or a system manages to override that protection.
Remember in the Terminator movies the machines start by nuclear war. They take out less then 50 to 90%+ of world population in a single go, while leaving much more damage to infrastructure they could use to produce new and more dangerous robots.
They make great robots, but are absolutely hopeless when it comes to making them likeable by humans. (And I'm not talking about anything sophisticated, just things like their robot dogs not having a friggin' head.)
And then they're surprised when some of their pilot projects, especially those in contact with the general public, dive head-first into the pavement.
I think they view having it not move like a human does as a plus. Everyone is familiar with the uncanny valley for CGI, where the eyes always just look wrong, especially if they are trying to portray emotion (tbh that's true of some humans though) We haven't experienced it yet but I'm sure there is an uncanny valley for gait, where seeing something that moves almost but not quite like a human will creep people out more than something that clearly moves unlike any human does.
There's impact in the movies when a demon possessed person in a horror film turns their head 180*, or when the female Terminator "turned around" by liquifying and reforming her body the other way around. That's because we haven't seen a person do that - I mean, no one gets freaked out when an owl turns its head 180* because everyone knows they can do that. If these robots became widespread we'd get used to the way they move, they wouldn't seem creepy that would be just how robots move just like owls move the way owls move. If they made the robot look as human as possible but they moved in this very non human way, or tried to make the robot move like a human but couldn't quite get there, that's what sets people's skin to crawling.
Their robot dogs sort of have a friggin' head, and can even talk. Who wouldn't want a robot dog which talks like KITT?
All they need to do now is put eyes on it so when they change colour to red we know when they've switched to evil mode.
Well, I'll be damned. They've actually learned their lesson... err, well, in part, if the current video is any indication. Past models of the same type were headless, for example the one they've given to the NYPD around 3 years ago, and the reaction was unsurprisingly abysmal.
Musk's month of hell continues... just as he's announcing that Tesla isn't a car company, it's a robots 'n' AI company, Boston Dynamics demonstrate this. I wouldn't want to be in the Optimus team right now.
It may look unholy (and boy is it LOUD), but this machine shows what a company focussed on commercialisation rather than investor relations can do. If they can come up with a proper name (not just Atlas+++) and it is remotely as agile as the older machine, then their experiences getting Spot out into the real world will surely pay off.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
