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Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

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

#31

Post by jahller »

mrweasel wrote: post #17
gilbertbw wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. But that’s the current state of the world. Even if you have enough cars to meet peak demand you will have an efficiency saving (at least where I live you see a lot of cars in driveways during rush hour traffic). That said I agree that for a lot of people their car is an extension of the…

> But that’s the current state of the world. True, but the difference is who's carrying the financial risk of the buying the car. Right now it's the individual consumers, who are mostly forced to do so, because better alternatives are not available. Leasing companies would never buy a fleet of cars that would sit mostly unused. Their cars needs to be on the road most of the time. This puts us back in Uber vs. taxis.…

> True, but the difference is who's carrying the financial risk of the buying the car. Right now it's the individual consumers, who are mostly forced to do so, because better alternatives are not available.

car-sharing already exists on a large scale in German capitals. you can park and pickup cars from e.g. Sixt or Share Now everywhere within a marked area. the business model for owning and maintaining a big fleet is already there.

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

#32

Post by eric4smith »

mrweasel wrote: post #19

Normally tech companies tend to be overpriced, but $880M for 80% of Boston Dynamics (total value of $1.1 billion), doesn't that seem a little low? Other tech companies can seemingly lose millions, as long as there's an advertising or data-mining angle to the product. Because Boston Dynamics aim to actually create physical products they then get valued lower?

I doubt they want BD for the products they're making. They want BD for all the hundreds of tiny little innovations they're making.

For example, a motor that has more torque with low power consumption.

A joint that can flex a certain way.

All those things are worth $100000000x more than a robotic Spot when it comes to industrial applications.

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

#33

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

numair wrote: post #18
MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #8

i thought that boston dynamics were a former DOD contractor, did this cause any problems with the authorization of the sale? (here it says that they got a lot of initial DARPA funding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Dynamics )

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…

don't know. here it says that Spot was tested by the french army in combat roles https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/7/22371590/boston-dynamics-s...

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

#34

Post by 88 »

mrweasel wrote: post #17
gilbertbw wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. But that’s the current state of the world. Even if you have enough cars to meet peak demand you will have an efficiency saving (at least where I live you see a lot of cars in driveways during rush hour traffic). That said I agree that for a lot of people their car is an extension of the…

> But that’s the current state of the world. True, but the difference is who's carrying the financial risk of the buying the car. Right now it's the individual consumers, who are mostly forced to do so, because better alternatives are not available. Leasing companies would never buy a fleet of cars that would sit mostly unused. Their cars needs to be on the road most of the time. This puts us back in Uber vs. taxis.…

The market solves these problems so we don’t have to.

It is extremely common for markets to face bursts in demand at peak times, and yet somehow we always find a sustainable equilibrium.

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

#36

Post by weego »

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?

Robots already build cars, and supply of new cars is often out-stripped by demand. It's not really new ground.

The limitations in car production are always the component supply chain, not the actual manufacture.

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

#37

Post by hkmurakami »

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…

I imagine Hyundai Motors has loose informal connections and regular collaborative efforts with other former Hyundai Group companies, including Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hyundai Robotics, so hopefully there'll be some smooth expertise sharing there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Group

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Heavy_Industries

https://www.hyundai-robotics.com/english/

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

#38

Post by ionwake »

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?

1- Unitrees robot looks identical - though it looks like it lacks Lidar?

2- Is the Unitree robot so similar because of talent poaching or just a coincidence?

3-How could a person invest in a company like unitree?

Thanks

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

#39

Post by nly »

weego wrote: post #36
nly wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Robots already build cars, and supply of new cars is often out-stripped by demand. It's not really new ground. The limitations in car production are always the component supply chain, not the actual manufacture.

Google image search "car factory" and it's super obviously it's quite labour intensive. I'm not sure why an investment in robots has to be "new ground".

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

#40

Post by [deleted] »

eric4smith wrote: post #30
nly wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]
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