The latest incarnation of Boston Dynamics' Atlas Robot took to the stage at CES 2026. Hyundai announced that it plans to deploy tens of thousands of the humanoid robot in its own manufacturing facilities and a strategic partnership between Hyundai and Google DeepMind means these robots will possess "physical intelligence".

Hyundai, which acquired a majority stake in Boston Dynamics in 2021, and said that this next-generation Atlas represents a tangible step toward the commercialization of AI Robotics, highlighting the Hyundai Group’s commitment to building safe and adaptable robotic co-workers.

The live stage demonstration of the latest prototype shows that Atlas, which transitioned to reinforcement learning at the same time as ditching hydraulics in favour of electric power, 

Boston Dynamics will now begin production of the new Atlas robots at its Boston headquarters. If you're thinking it would be good to have an Atlas of your own, you're going to have a long wait as all Atlas deployments are already fully committed for 2026, with fleets scheduled to ship to Hyundai's Robotics Metaplant Application Center (RMAC) and Google DeepMind. The company plans to add additional customers in early 2027.

The strategic partnership between Google DeepMind and Boston Dynamics will bring new cabablities to Altas thanks to the integration of the Gemini Robotics foundation models, built on the large-scale, multi-modal Gemini model, into Atlas. 

This collaboration aims to solve the "brain" problem in robotics: transitioning humanoid robots from performing impressive but pre-scripted acrobatics to being able to not only to visual and sensor data to control physical actions, but also to reason about  and adapt to its environment, to use tools and interact with humans.

Deploying thousands of these robots in the automotive industry is obviously a good testing ground - and at last making good on the promise of "built by robots". And may be we won't have to wait too long to find them taking on more of the tasks that make everyday life a drudge.  

More Information

Boston Dynamics Atlas

Getting Real with Humanoids

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