Category: Trucking News

Yes, hyena robots are scary. But they're also a cunning marketing ploy

There’s something unsettling about a private firm making powerful autonomous machines – but what’s scarier is who’s building them, and whyBoston Dynamics’ robot dog, Spot. Photograph: Patrícia de Melo Moreira/AFP/AFP via Getty ImagesEarlier this year, videos of a robot being kicked, hit with a chair, and shot at by its human owners spread online. Created by an LA-based production company, Corridor Digital, the videos were a parody of those released by Boston Dynamics, a company that has been making robots since 1992.You’ve almost certainly seen their videos. A robotic cheetah sprints across a parking lot. A robotic dog takes on a human in a tug of war. Sometimes the robots are cute, like the Sand Flea, which flicks itself effortlessly over 30ft walls. Sometimes they’re scary: like the android who does parkour.But the general tone of the videos is ominous – like the one of this militaristic looking robot called BigDog...