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Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics

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Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics

#41

Post by NitpickLawyer »

mlmonkey wrote: post #19

I still think dumping BD was one of the biggest mistakes of Sundar's career. And that's saying something.

There's got to be something wrong at the core of BD. They've been pawned off a bunch of times, and they still don't have products out the factory line like they should. I think the tech community has been impressed by their videos, but the fact that their most sold thing is a toy dog at a luxury car price point says a lot about the company.

My personal take is that one of the reasons is their posture against ML. They've been very "GOFCT" and have only recently started to incorporate ML concepts.

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics

#42

Post by stavros »

Hugsbox wrote: post #31

I don't understand why they would implement humanoid robots instead of purpose-built robots. The human form is not the most optimal way to do most tasks, especially as it relates to manufacturing. Robots don't need to look like humans, they need to be useful . Seems like putting in an awful lot of extra unnecessary work to end up with a worse result.

It's much cheaper to create one general-purpose robot for everything than many different robots, each optimized to each task.

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics

#43

Post by Zigurd »

Hyundai bumped their ownership up to 100%, and took the opportunity to reset expectations about when Atlas would be working in Hyundai factories.

While Atlas is the best humanoid robot so far, it still isn't useful in a car factory that's fully equipped with the latest factory robots that are strong enough to juggle car engines and are bolted to the floor.

Everyone knows the killer app for humanoid robots is building the Mars colony amirte?

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics

#44

Post by idiotsecant »

Zigurd wrote: post #43

Hyundai bumped their ownership up to 100%, and took the opportunity to reset expectations about when Atlas would be working in Hyundai factories. While Atlas is the best humanoid robot so far, it still isn't useful in a car factory that's fully equipped with the latest factory robots that are strong enough to juggle car engines and are bolted to the floor. Everyone knows the killer app for humanoid robots is building…

There are plenty of tasks a relatively weak humanoid robot is well suited for. Basically any task that is 'human shaped' and not worth an automated line.

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics

#45

Post by nativeit »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #20
bayindirh wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generating an image from an already open tab is faster than making a search engine query and selecting a good, high resolution image. Who cares about quality. Speed is the new black.

ai generated imagery can’t be copyrighted while all other photography can and generally needs to be treated as it is. Therefore you likely have to pay a royalty to Getty or other asset outlet. Of use AI.

…who have quite conveniently already stolen and trained on all the copyrighted images. Thanks AI!

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics

#46

Post by looperhacks »

ACCount37 wrote: post #37
Hugsbox wrote: post #31

I don't understand why they would implement humanoid robots instead of purpose-built robots. The human form is not the most optimal way to do most tasks, especially as it relates to manufacturing. Robots don't need to look like humans, they need to be useful . Seems like putting in an awful lot of extra unnecessary work to end up with a worse result.

I'm not sure how many times this has to be restated. It's car manufacturing. Everything that could be done by a purpose specific robot arm bolted down to the factory floor is already done by a purpose specific robot arm bolted down to the factory floor. What remains unautomated, then? The long tail of tasks that are too minor, too finicky, too open-ended or too reliant on manual dexterity to be offloaded onto traditi…

But if these tasks are too minor, too finicky, too open-ended or too reliant on manual dexterity for a purpose-built robot, how can a general purpose robot perform them better? If anything, they should be doing worse.

The only thing I can think of are tasks that are so rarely done, it's not economical to build a robot for. But I then I also don't see how another robot solves this problem.

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics

#47

Post by sgt »

Hugsbox wrote: post #31

I don't understand why they would implement humanoid robots instead of purpose-built robots. The human form is not the most optimal way to do most tasks, especially as it relates to manufacturing. Robots don't need to look like humans, they need to be useful . Seems like putting in an awful lot of extra unnecessary work to end up with a worse result.

That's like saying there's no need for a generic CPU. The only way forward is a ASIC. Once a generic CPU does everything well enough, it's extremely versatile.

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics

#48

Post by jerlam »

qwerpy wrote: post #24
glitchc wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure? The warranty is on the car, not the owner. Almost all manufacturers (except Tesla) transfer automatically and are based on mileage.

You have it backwards. Hyundai, KIA, etc will knock it down to 5yrs/60K for used car buyers. Source: https://www.kbb.com/car-advice/car-warranty-guide/ Teslas new car warranty transfers as is to the new owner. Source: https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/blog_attachments/m...

Although confusingly, the battery/motor on a Hyundai EV is covered under a different 10-year/100K warranty which does transfer to used car buyers. Important because of their unfixed ICCU problems.

Re: Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics

#50

Post by jrflo »

Hugsbox wrote: post #31

I don't understand why they would implement humanoid robots instead of purpose-built robots. The human form is not the most optimal way to do most tasks, especially as it relates to manufacturing. Robots don't need to look like humans, they need to be useful . Seems like putting in an awful lot of extra unnecessary work to end up with a worse result.

Custom built robots are expensive (basically an R&D project in themselves) and inflexible, if you want to update the process you have to redesign your automated system. The dream of humanoid robots is they can adapt to new manufacturing processes like human workers.
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