Boston Dynamics debuts stunning new Atlas humanoid robot l TechCrunch Minute

What makes for an impressive humanoid robot? Boston Dynamics has a new Atlas model that ditches the hydraulics and is electrically powered. The new Atlas robot is leaner, but not meaner - it’s actually designed to be more approachable and less industrial. But its improved range of motion is still intended to help it perform those industrial tasks, and with its compact size and ability to maneuver fairly gracefully, it can unlock new use cases and possible work environments. TechCrunch’s Alex Wilhelm discusses what this could mean for robots entering the workplace.
Subscribe for more on KZbin: tcrn.ch/youtube
Follow TechCrunch on Instagram: tcrn.ch/instagram
TikTok: tcrn.ch/tiktok
X: tcrn.ch/x
Facebook: tcrn.ch/facebook
Read more: techcrunch.com/

[@cassandramathis8657]

Mankind is dead Blood is fuel Hell is fuel

[@CharaDreemurr-]

Is that V1 ultrakill💀

[@fizzinsoda]

no it's atlas

[@Slayer-cr7gi]

Not yet but maybe

[@antmass3]

Notice it's legs as it stands and walks. They aren't in the typical bended position that other robots seem to require in order to maintain balance. They seem to remain more or less straight, bending on as needed to complete each stride.

[@folgoll8927]

Maybe it’s just bottom heavy?

[@fizzinsoda]

you can see him straighten his back, there's some sort of gyroscope helping, basically giving him plenty of gravity to play with and continue to move up

[@FindingUser]

Yes.. go ahead and make notes of weak points before the war begins

[@georgehunter2813]

Korean Atlas. Goes beyond the Asimo movement schema.

[@DominicRyanOsborne]

Literally just asking for a death match race between atlas figure and Optimus, in gasoline cars.. Boston dynamics says hold on we have a new trainee

[@TheGlobalProfessional]

One great thing about this new Atlas is that every company will copy it. This New Atlas style of robot seems more capable than other humanoid robots in terms of movement. Now researchers, product designers, and the like will build upon innovations from before. We are going to start seeing more amalgamations of all these designs. There will be cheap copies, budget friendly versions, and high end models as well. Combined with ML and Virtual Twins; the training of these bots will happen much faster than before.

[@theoddfellow8106]

Seems like the car rush all over again

[@QuestionMark......]

The new atlas looks cool.

[@TheGlobalProfessional]

It really seems sci-fi. It looks like it would actually be useful. I would love to own one of these one day.

[@robertcornelius3514]

Me, "I need you to do laundry and sweep the floor." New Atlas, "You are NOW my slave."

[@vanillajack5925]

These new IG series assassin droids are getting pretty advanced.

[@qwertyzxaszc6323]

Honestly, the Tesla robot mess is hot garbage compared to even a ten-year-old Atlas. Good to see Boston Dynamics show Tesla how to make a decent electric robot.

[@KTK-o]

Tesla Bot isn't nearly as athletic as Atlas but it's got good dexterity, so I'll give credit where credit is due.

[@qwertyzxaszc6323]

@@KTK-o it's useless. There is no way forward for it. The entire project started with a man dancing dressed like a robot and it always felt like an afterthought. They need to start over because it's hot garbage. There is no way forward for that thing. You'll see, what they have now will be abandoned and they will need to restart from scratch, It is obvious they have no clue what they are doing.

[@KTK-o]

@@qwertyzxaszc6323 your comment sounds like you've had too much alcohol. It's very incoherent.

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

The only thing Elon has going for himself is the Falcon 9. Everything else is a self absorbed pipe dream.

[@gaberyan6283]

@@AHHHHHHHH21 And you know an effective monopoly on the worlds largest market on the planet, world wide fiber optic speeds anywhere on the planet means anyone with a need to access the internet is a potential customer. Lower the price to $20 bucks a pop to attract customers and suddenly you have 7 billion people paying you for internet. The best part is, since he owns spaceX and its so price competitive no one can even attempt to compete with him in this vector, the geo orbit satellite game is entirely cost prohibitive for any possible competition that isn't going through spaceX themselves. People love to shit on elon because the dude acts like a dumbass on twitter but fail to realize the power the dude actually has over allot of very important things.

[@pauled4467]

Looks like Pathfinder from Apex Legends.

[@deondrex18k]

It do just need a screen on his torso 😅

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

yeah, he does look like a Marvin.

[@MrLouddrums]

His book selections are awesome on the shelf behind him. I've already made a list of what I could see for some to read lol

[@nbme-answers]

Can you the shorts in a playlist so we can use auto-play to listen to all episodes?

[@billyoung8118]

This is the closest thing so far that mimics that uber flexible guy in Cirque du Soleil.

[@userpupkin499]

Не. . Атлас 1 был истинным гуманоидом. Когда он упал и отбил яйца о бревно, он, как настоящий мужик, за них схватился))

[@fredericoduvel3092]

The King is back!🤴

[@danielmoll]

The unsolved problem is that the battery life will be so short that the robot will trip over the cable. 😆

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

You sure? Batteries are really fuckin good now. My phone can run for 2 days straight provided I don't do anything too power heavy

[@georgehunter2813]

The Hyundai Korea connection can be seen in this version of the Atlas robot going back to the DARPA task contest about a decade ago. The DARPA contest required the robot to drive a cart to a building, park, and then enter a building interior with obstacles, navigate to a dry wall panel and perform mechanical tasks to it. The Korean robot entry for that task contest had similar unconventional movement schemes as the new Atlas robot is demonstrating now. This Atlas is an advanced break from the more conventional previous Atlas model. Hyundai plus Boston Robotics......mostly Hyundai. It's Korean Atlas now.

[@ShyitFard69]

Imagine what these robots could do for people who are disabled, and or impaired

[@PetertheGreatest1]

They could tear them limb from limb

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

For the first replier, no, they aren't that strong, and also they aren't controlled by ai. This isn't terminator. (Well, they are "controlled" by ai which just allows it to move better)

[@camduran3352]

The Atlas robot grabbing at its (non-existent) balls has me hyperventilating! 😂🤣😆

[@time-a-tell2461]

What public company could you invest in for the Atlas robot ?

[@hunterhenryk]

Robot butler? How are you going to afford a robot butler once you're unemployed?

[@SCP-mt7bc]

Giving him a battery

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

People said that computers were going to take their jobs. Sure, some jobs were taken but new ones were open. This is the same thing.

[@juliemccannon2908]

It'll just take time for me to come around. I'll miss Atlas.

[@spicyapplesauce1868]

week one someone is going to drill holes in that thing

[@hexane8]

Come on, we all know why guys want this tech to move along and it ain't for butlers.

[@mygirldarby]

Most people aren't as focused on that as you seem to think.

[@williamparrish2436]

Yeah, I predict robots combined with VR will give virtually realistic sexual experiences. At that point men will stop looking to women for sex and will probably only marry for religious reasons or children. The average woman will have to change if they want husbands. No more "I am the table" talk. They'll need to offer something other than sex. Just like men have to offer protection, financial support, wedding rings, houses, cars, etc... tangible things.

[@thymecrafter]

don’t give him coins

[@CD3WD-Project]

Not good people not good if you watch the videos of the old Atlas you could tell that it would bleed if it got hurt if the new one is full electric that means it doesn't bleed skynet becometh for everyone.

[@TTTTacu]

40mm grenade launcher:

[@dwainmorris7854]

NEVER HAVE ONE OF THOSE THING IN MY HOUSE

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

Cool. Nobody asked you to.

[@dwainmorris7854]

@@AHHHHHHHH21 Nobody had to

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

@@dwainmorris7854 then why were you so aggressive about it?

[@harmanx.]

From what's been discussed, LLMs know little or nothing about the physical makeup of the world, so that software will mostly just help a robot have a discussion with you -- it won't be able to then go anywhere or do anything

[@harpfully]

There's more going on in AI than LLMs. Systems (models) can be made to work in different modes, such as physical embodiment.

[@harmanx.]

@@harpfully True -- but I was responding to the host who mentioned LLMs more than once as being the software to run the robots.

[@hexane8]

There's tons of info about the physical works though thanks to security cams, Google maps, cell phone pics, etc.. there's even footage of underwater caves. The harder a place is to get to the more it is the few that get there will be taking selfies and wearing go pros. As far as physical dexterity for moving and maneuvering the environment, that will be trained into the robots in industry (these physical world robo jocks will be interfaced with the nerdier immotile AI running it). That's mostly just guessing but we've def been taking in data on the physical world intensely for over a decade. Welcome, offspring of humanity! Plz be nice to us even though we are jerks to lesser beings ourselves. We are impulse driven primates who can't even accept our primate nature, how can we overcome/adjust for it? (Hopefully that damn octopus farm in Spain never gets built).

[@mygirldarby]

LLM's learn frighteningly fast. You act like they are stuck at some specific iteration.

[@harmanx.]

@@mygirldarby They're called language models because they're trained on language -- so, textual data. They may fuse that with models that are trained on videos of the real world, perhaps -- but those aren't language models. The host specified LLMs, which is what I commented about.

[@Dr.Cosmar]

It's amazing how many people keep passing this video off as legit instead of acknowledging that this is basically a commercial for investors or demonstrates the goal, there isn't one working prototype yet. It's "fund us and this could have your name on it.".

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

"there isn't one working prototype yet" you sure? that robot getting up and walking around sure looked like a working prototype. This isn't even their first bipedal robot, it just looks a lot more refined than the first one

[@Dr.Cosmar]

@@AHHHHHHHH21 I am %100 positive there is no working prototype. It's CG.

[@BCBtheBeastlyBeast]

"Good news"? Maybe. Maybe not.

[@panigALI1199s]

BD been sandbaggin' it, open source is dead...this is corporate arms race shots fired.

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

When has it ever been open source?

[@panigALI1199s]

@AHHHHHHHH21 BD obviously not, but recent iterations of the AI and robot arms race has been deliberately presented to us as "open source" from Open AI, Musk's constant touting of transparency in code, early Android days, DeepMind and so on, but in reality and quite dramatically with Open AI's Microsoft and Altman's dictatorial coup, even the bullsh!t veneer of openess is all but gone. This is an elite and corporate funded arms race backed further by governments and NO ONE in the normal human population is asking for this, voting for it, or even purchasing it in the open market! ChatGPT is neither profitable in its profit model nor steadily increasing subscriptions. But somebody is pouring billions into this! Additionally NO environmentalists or sustainability useful idiots are challenging the absolutely impossible energy demands of EVs (which will include robots) and AI super compute power! Somehow this entire topic is silenced in the media while you're sipping on soggy carcinogenic straws.

[@Scrappysir2]

Budget cuts:

[@Minos-gaming______dylanjam5737]

We do *NOT* want to give it coins

[@edwardfletcher7790]

More like our new personal Terminator.... LoL

[@atoshipongen5005]

From 2006 to 2017 biggest healing of the world, from 2018 to 2023 showing God power, from 2024 we live on and the way of live living system thanks

[@user-tk6kg3em2j]

Ummm just get up regularly please Edna

[@bradsgold345]

I Robot....

[@melgross]

Well, the problem with robots is that they’re incredibly expensive. Hundreds of thousands of dollars expensive. The reality is that without some major design and manufacturing breakthrough, not things anticipated any time soon, they will continue to be far too expensive to be used for much beyond demonstrations and some military uses such as finding bombs and possibly a few cases of rescue. Home use isn’t even a glimmer right now and may not be for at least a couple of decades. Industrial robots are very job oriented. That is, they are programmed specifically for certain tasks. But general purpose robots are a completely different matter. Frankly, the idea that Open A.I. would be used isn’t exactly reassuring. We’ve seen how off the rails their software can get. I’d be concerned if that happened while controlling a humanoid body of that flexibility and strength. Asimov’s Three Laws of robotics look to be useful here, but they’ve been analyzed several times, and the problems with them are troubling. There is no simple solution.

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

When computers were invented they were insanely expensive and basic. Now we pay a few hundred for a super advanced piece of machinery that dwarfs even NASA super computers from the time.

[@melgross]

@@AHHHHHHHH21 it’s true. But I design and build machines. I also started with computers in high school back in the 1960s. There’s a major difference between computers and machinery. While computing has come down orders of magnitude over the years, machinery costs have remained about the same. A robot is almost entirely machinery. Depending on what you want the robot to be capable of, that cost is going to to vary, of course, but even very basic models will cost near six digits. More complex models will cost somewhere between six and seven digits. The military and industry users will pay for these if the humanoid form is actually useful to them, which isn’t something that’s assured. This isn’t science fiction. Reality has shown that specialized robots are much more effective than a humanoid form. We are what we are because of evolution, but robots will be. Built for a,purpose. And cost is always a factor. If it’s cheaper to build computers into machines than to build a robot that will work a machine, then that is what will be done.

[@voxyloids8723]

Thant's not good news )))

[@twister010]

i don't think we should have built terminators until we removed all the dictators from the earth

[@CalebBerg]

TOO MUCH TALK, NOT ENOUGH WALK BRO!! -- We know you can talk, you should be showing what this "great" robot thing can do!

[@CharlieKelly-ub5qw]

I'll believe it. When I see it

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

You saw it in the video. I mean, unless you want to head to the BD headquarters and convince them to let you see it

[@7even871]

Looks like cgi

[@chrisfojtik7391]

BD can fall off the earth.

[@simobomb6475]

Ew flat earther

[@johnvega2528]

It’s so unreal it looks fake

[@divergentview2821]

The "video" of the new Atlas platform looks like animation. In fact, until I see it interacting with humans in-frame, I will tend to believe it IS just animation.

[@mygirldarby]

That is utterly ridiculous. Boston Dynamic doesnt release cgi videos pretending to have a robot. Come on. 😅

[@brodyratliff7441]

Ladies and gentlemen, human ignorance at full display

[@ultimatecultchaos]

This guy is trying so hard to believe that they have released their first ever cgi video with their biggest android promise yet...

[@flynntaggart7216]

You can visit them to see the robot yourself 😂

[@TTTTacu]

Watch "Boston Dynamics Robots Can't be Faked - VFX Artists Explain Why"

[@LbLedesma-zp6pm]

Obviously CGI.

[@Twenty1world]

Looks programmed but doesnt look like CGI as they already showed amazing movements of previous virsion.

[@AnteBrkic]

I think so too

[@LbLedesma-zp6pm]

Fake video................

[@Ronald-Butler]

Honestly, the Tesla robot mess is hot garbage compared to even a ten-year-old Atlas. Good to see Boston Dynamics show Tesla how to make a decent electric robot.