When Hyundai acquired Boston Dynamics at the end of 2020, there were plenty of open questions. Chief among them was why we should assume this acquisition would be any different than the past few? The 30-year-old bleeding-edge robotics firm had been an uncomfortable fit for its last two owners, Google and SoftBank, but the Korean automotive giant insisted things would be different.
The pairing has, thus far, been something of a mixed bag. As Boston Dynamics looks to pragmatic applications to commercialize robots like Spot and Stretch, Hyundai has used the technology for some wild sci-fi demos, including one at this year’s CES featuring Spot ha …