Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M • Hacker News Board

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#21

Post by sdflhasjd » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 9:04 AM UTC

88840-8855 wrote: post #13

jmcgough wrote: post #4

They've gone from Google -> Softbank -> Hyundai in a few years. Does anyone know where their revenue is coming from currently? For all the flashy videos they put out, you so rarely see them that I'm not sure if they're just doing well on the B2B side (warehouse automation? military contracts?), or if they've been in the red for the last decade.

They bleed money and are not revenue positive yet. And all those re-acquisitions indicate that none of their parent company could provide a nurturing environment to enable the company to make profit. My two cents. If not military use or a very expensive niche use, e.g. for emergency services, then those things will have a pretty hard time to enter the mass-consumer market. What will probably happen is that a Chinese…

Where does 70k even go?

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#22

Post by throwaway879 » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 9:04 AM UTC

jmcgough wrote: post #4

They've gone from Google -> Softbank -> Hyundai in a few years. Does anyone know where their revenue is coming from currently? For all the flashy videos they put out, you so rarely see them that I'm not sure if they're just doing well on the B2B side (warehouse automation? military contracts?), or if they've been in the red for the last decade.

This and the first few replies to it feel like they're coming from bean counters, not engineers. Who reads HN? I mean anyone can, but who's the core audience. I'm confused. Shouldn't the top voted thread be about the tech and the engineering behind it, and debating whether it's worth funding or not based on that, not based on things that are mostly the concern of business people. Is it that most engineers today have MBAs or are MBA wannabes? or well roundedness? But this focus on business metrics is not well roundedness, for an engineer, IMO.

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#23

Post by slavik81 » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 9:05 AM UTC

prawn wrote: post #15

mrweasel wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just want my car to drive itself to service checks, when I'm at work. Save all that trouble of having to gamble that they have a car you can use, or there's a bus route that won't take you an hour back and forth. Self-driving done right could save me from having two cars. It could take me to work, drive back home, pickup the wife, drive her to work. Go back and pick me up in the afternoon, drop me of at home and th…

This made me think of something I hadn't considered before - whether we'll first see automated driving, but only when the vehicle is empty. e.g., you drive yourself somewhere, then the vehicle moves on to another job. If the vehicle is privately owned, it would park or drive home for your wife to use. If part of a fleet, it would just drive on to the next request. Cars in that mode could be constrained to a less dang…

A basic form of low-speed self-driving would be automated valet parking. Drop people off or pick them up at the entrance, then go park far away.

If there was a common communication standard, the vehicles could also park much more tightly than is done in a normal parking lot. You don't need to keep empty space behind each car when you can coordinate the parked cars to move and clear a path. My guess is that you could park almost twice as many cars in the same space.

The combination of reducing parking lot size and freeing people from walking to/from the lot would open up many interesting options for increasing density and walkability in commercial areas.

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#24

Post by eric4smith » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 9:10 AM UTC

These are one of the few times I can say that I don't care if Boston Dynamics are making money as yet.

Boston Dynamics are one of the few real serious players in the robotics space worldwide doing deep R&D.

Hyundai are basically paying for the BD Labs research. And they are well positioned to reap the products and techniques from the lab with their own manufacturing and engineering prowess and experience over the next decade.

And it won't be walking dogs.

It will be things like a little flexi-joint in a car that you buy without knowing (or caring) it's in there. Or some industrial machine that Hyundai builds that gives them a 5% competitive edge in the manufacturing of it that 99.9999% of us never hear about.

But for that it's worth it.

Very happy to see people put good money into this Lab.

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#25

Post by TaylorAlexander » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 9:14 AM UTC

sdflhasjd wrote: post #21

88840-8855 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They bleed money and are not revenue positive yet. And all those re-acquisitions indicate that none of their parent company could provide a nurturing environment to enable the company to make profit. My two cents. If not military use or a very expensive niche use, e.g. for emergency services, then those things will have a pretty hard time to enter the mass-consumer market. What will probably happen is that a Chinese…

Where does 70k even go?

The high cost components of a robot like this are: Actuators, motor drivers, batteries, compute, sensors, and mechanical components.

I did not reference SPOTs specs but it must be full of low volume custom parts (expensive). They are honestly probably selling them at little to no profit as $70k is about how much a low volume custom research robot might cost in parts. But I could see them getting SPOT down to $20k in parts, but then you still need to do assembly which is going to be very hands on with technicians doing assembly and test engineers checking components. And one could imagine they'd like it if they could manage some profit. IDK it all adds up robots are super expensive.

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#26

Post by 88 » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 9:17 AM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #12

jahller wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this would be the best usage for what we consider cars imaginable. also would negate the need to personally own a car. just order one from a fleet of autonomous cars if you are in need of mobility.

Ideally yes, but there's a lot of hurdles to overcome. For many it would work just fine, but for other there's going to be minor details that makes it work less well. Firstly we need to spread out peoples work day. We can't all be at the office a 8:00, and go home at 16:00. it wouldn't make economical sense in have a fleet large enough to handle peak hours, but have the cars do nothing most of the day. There's also d…

> it wouldn't make economical sense in have a fleet large enough to handle peak hours

Supply and demand with dynamic pricing will sort that out.

Consider also that autonomous vehicles could make much more efficient use of existing road capacity.

> If we didn't have all these specific needs, most of us could just take the bus

Buses do not take you directly to your preferred location, without stopping, with your own private space, etc.

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#27

Post by jgilias » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 9:21 AM UTC

smhost wrote: post #20

numair wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We just sold South Korea a bunch of actual weapons so I don’t think these could-be weapons are going to attract too much controversy. And if you think there’s some actual weaponry among the could-be weapons technology, well... Take a look around the neighborhood. Maybe that’s the point? (I don’t think this is true; I am of the belief that the hidden secret within most companies, regardless of size or industry, is tha…

> Take a look around the neighborhood. Maybe that’s the point? Probably not, since South Korea maintains pretty good relations with its neighbors. South Korea (as well as the rest of the world) doesn't see the U.S. anymore as a rational partner, but as something to be managed with caution. North Korea is unironically seen as a more predictable and reliable enemy than the U.S. is seen as a reliable ally. Nobody is hap…

Are you actually from South Korea to be able to comment on what the South Korean perception on their neighborhood is? Like, this is a no offense intended genuine question.

Because from an outside perspective the neighborhood really looks challenging. China is growing stronger and throws muscle around a lot with diplomatic rows ensuing even over traditional ways of cabbage preparation. Relationships with Japan are cordial at best due to WWII legacy. North Korea seems to be a pretty big liability.

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#28

Post by nly » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 9:22 AM UTC

eric4smith wrote: post #24

These are one of the few times I can say that I don't care if Boston Dynamics are making money as yet. Boston Dynamics are one of the few real serious players in the robotics space worldwide doing deep R&D. Hyundai are basically paying for the BD Labs research. And they are well positioned to reap the products and techniques from the lab with their own manufacturing and engineering prowess and experience over the nex…

Robots that build cars seem most likely? Not sure how many staff your average car factory has, but due to sheer product complexity it's still more than other industries like food manufacturing.

Maybe we'll see vast car factories, churning out thousands of cars per day, with only a half dozen staff in years to come?

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#29

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 9:29 AM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #7

powerapple wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A car can take you to work and instead of waiting in carpark, it can help you do stuff, that would be awesome XD

I just want my car to drive itself to service checks, when I'm at work. Save all that trouble of having to gamble that they have a car you can use, or there's a bus route that won't take you an hour back and forth. Self-driving done right could save me from having two cars. It could take me to work, drive back home, pickup the wife, drive her to work. Go back and pick me up in the afternoon, drop me of at home and th…

[deleted]

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#30

Post by eric4smith » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 9:30 AM UTC

nly wrote: post #28

eric4smith wrote: post #24

These are one of the few times I can say that I don't care if Boston Dynamics are making money as yet. Boston Dynamics are one of the few real serious players in the robotics space worldwide doing deep R&D. Hyundai are basically paying for the BD Labs research. And they are well positioned to reap the products and techniques from the lab with their own manufacturing and engineering prowess and experience over the nex…

Robots that build cars seem most likely? Not sure how many staff your average car factory has, but due to sheer product complexity it's still more than other industries like food manufacturing. Maybe we'll see vast car factories, churning out thousands of cars per day, with only a half dozen staff in years to come?

That's a good assumption to make. They for sure see 800M+ value in it.