Recently The Korea Economic Daily had reported that Hyundai had purchased Boston Dynamics for a staggering $921 Million.
If you have been following me on social media over the past few years you will quickly know that I have a deep respect and fear of the real life ‘Skynet’. From Spot the dog like robot to Atlas the parkour loving, back flipping humanoid robot – the group at Boston Dynamics have pushed the robotic technology from ‘future’ to reality.
Recently we received reports that this purchase was fueled by newly promoted Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung and his pledge to reduce reliance on ‘traditional car manufacturing’ reporting that the advancement in Robotics would account for 20% of the companies future business. Vehicle production would take up 50% with ‘Urban Air Mobility’ taking up 30% of their production.
While my initial reaction to this multi-facited in respect to increased abilities of Boston Dynamics, potentially decreased ingenuity and development all coupled with ‘Well, Skynet just got a bit closer to a reality today’ – the more those of us at Your Digital Mind researched, the more this sounds like a true Win Win for everyone.
Chung will personally own 20% in Boston Dynamics while Hyundai Motor and its affiliates will hold a combined 60%. This is a huge win for Softbank and it’s Boston Dynamics leg and perhaps the engineers who have been developing the revolutionary Robots.
Hyundai said the deal values the robot firm at $1.1 billion, suggesting the automaker group offered $880 million for the 80% stake.
Hyundai didn’t respond to Your Digital Mind’s request for comment in time for publication.
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