Hyundai didn’t buy Boston Robotics — or enough of it to make no difference either way — for nothing. The automaker has plans to sell its robots to the public. As it happens, there’s preexisting infrastructure to make that happen.
The South Korean company, via its CEO José Muñoz, has signalled its intention to sell robots via its network of dealerships. Muñoz, speaking during the company’s investor day, explained, “We have existing potential distribution for selling robots through our dealer partners.”
Hyundai the weather
It’s not like other car manufacturers don’t have similar ambitions. BYD is the most recent to link robots — its still-unofficial humanoid companion — and car dealerships. The odds are strong that other companies working on similar tech will take similar routes. Tesla dealerships selling Optimus robots is a likely scenario. Xpeng will probably also repurpose its existing channels. And perhaps BMW will let its robots out of the factory at some point — if folks are willing to buy them.
Hyundai’s offering of the Spot and Atlas robots is probably the most mature solution on the market at present. Spot is already widely sold, and has been since before Boston Dynamics was bought up. Atlas 2.0 is currently in various work-experience programs as it nears full-scale production. The same companies that run vehicle fleets are bound to start considering robots, humanoid and otherwise, for similar roles within these companies.
