Photo: Atlas robot. Credit: Boston Dynamics.
The 2021 acquisition of Boston Dynamics by Hyundai Motor Group 현대자동차 made waves and inspired speculation about what the automobile company was planning to accomplish with the leading robotics company. On January 5, Boston Dynamics gave its answer with the unveiling of its new humanoid robot Atlas at the annual CES convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Atlas is bipedal, with human-like joints, and is expected to cost approximately KRW 300m (USD 206k) per unit - roughly the annual salary of three Hyundai factory workers. Except for routine maintenance, the robot is able to work 24 hours a day, allowing Hyundai to recoup its investment in less than two years. Hyundai announced that approximately 30k Atlas robots will be deployed in its factories by 2028.
South Korea is already a runaway global leader in robotic automation, with 1,012 robots per 10k employees - far outstripping other manufacturing economies like Germany (415 robots per 10k) and Japan (397 robots per 10k). The share price of Hyundai Motors jumped by 80% this year, in large part due to the automobile company’s rising profile as an early leader in humanoid robots and physical AI.
The Hyundai Motors union, one of the strongest labor unions in South Korea, bristled at the news, stating: “Not one robot will set foot in the factory without negotiating with the union.” The labor union has accused Hyundai Motors of seeking to implement the Dark Factory 24/7 Project, which envisions a fully automatic factory with humanoid robots building other humanoid robots, running automobile factories nonstop without any human involvement.
