An electric new era for Atlas

  1. Amazing technical ability.
  2. Feels scary, both the beyond-human movement, and the design of the 'face'.

One simple example: getting in and out of a car. Another thing to consider is that a legged robot can tilt itself for balance while carrying heavy objects. To carry a similar weight with a wheeled robot you'll need a much wider wheel base.

And then of course, if you want to build robots that can be useful inside a house, then they need to be able to cope with stairs. There's also construction... At some point, you don't have elevators... Or just circulating between buildings out on the street where the pavement isn't great.

I'd go out on a limb and say that we will NEVER have humanoid robots at home folding laundry, walking upstairs to put it away, or putting away the dishes in the kitchen. This is a 1960's sci-fi vision of the future, similar to that of flying cars. Any robot capable of fully navigating the human world will always be too expensive and unreliable as a home helper.

In a factory a stable wheeled robot is way more practical than a bipedal one. It doesn't need a humanoid head either - but I guess that makes for nice PR photos.

One of my pet peeves is the idea of asking the world to accommodate a situation rather than build solutions that adapt to the world.

Big example: the best we have for mobility nowadays is a wheelchair of some sort. That requires building special ramps and elevators everywhere.

If we had a four legged chair that could climb stairs, etc, like what BD is doing, it could transport people ANYWHERE. you could literally go for a stroll in the woods with it. People that are injured for 6 weeks in their home could go up and down steps, etc. The elderly could go for walks in a park.

So I for one fully support more research into smarter mobility that doesn’t require the world to accommodate it, but instead adjusts to its surroundings.