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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

#51

Post by judgardner »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #42
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…

Great for Hyundai. Not such a good ROI for the taxpayers who kept BD afloat with decades of DARPA funding.

Assess the DARPA funding as a portfolio.

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

#52

Post by newsclues »

nly wrote: post #39
weego wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

You are right, modern car manufacturers still use humans in assembly lines.

But to see how much robots actually do nowadays, compare that to auto assembly from decades ago when robots were new, or further back when they did not exist

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

#53

Post by batmansmk »

Tade0 wrote: post #47
weego wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Robots indeed build cars, but not from start to finish. Especially customisation and snapping delicate plastic trim pieces in place is still done by hand.

Humans spend 15h to 60h of labour to build a car. After, humans worked on individual parts, shipping, loading etc.

My rule of thumb is that there is about 10% of manufacture cost that are direct or indirect cost connected to payroll.

If I may add another axis of reflexion that I consider fundamental for modern engineers to consider, food for machines for producing a car (44% natural gas when smithing things) is about 15 to 25% of the energy cost to use the car in its lifetime, according to the EU. Or about 2,400 euro of a 8L/100km car.

So in a world where energy gets more expensive, automation needs to definitely evolve, but not solely to be faster or replace more humans.

https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/9/2396/pdf

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

#54

Post by noir_lord »

judgardner wrote: post #51
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great for Hyundai. Not such a good ROI for the taxpayers who kept BD afloat with decades of DARPA funding.

Assess the DARPA funding as a portfolio.

Agreed - one of the benefits of DARPA is they fund long-shots which once proven viable (or not) are then commercially developed.

This is a good outcome, the money wasn't 'wasted' since it spurred development in a particular area of interest to DARPA - advanced robotics.

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

#56

Post by tooltalk »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #42
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…

Great for Hyundai. Not such a good ROI for the taxpayers who kept BD afloat with decades of DARPA funding.

It's just too bad that the DARPA couldn't flip it like Softbank did in just a few years.

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

#57

Post by LinuxBender »

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?

Maybe. Another possible variant on that idea could be micro-factories [1] that address delivery constraints and allow a factory to be located anywhere there is a small warehouse.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Qyor9Yc-s

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

#58

Post by hoseja »

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…

Sell a man a fish, he'll come back hungry tomorrow. Teach him how to fish, you just lost a customer.

edit: Karl Marx came up with it first it seems haha. I swear I didn't know!

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

#59

Post by smhost »

jgilias wrote: post #27
smhost wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 cor…

The South Korean position locally is actually not that challenging in a particular sense, despite typical media exaggerations. It's almost straightforward. SK has strong economic and cultural ties to its neighbors that can be accessed to stabilize relations if needed. North Korea is not really a liability in itself. KJU has been acting consistently towards opening up the North Korean economy on NK's own terms, which would benefit both nations tremendously. Those kinds of attempts are being stonewalled by Biden, and that's causing the U.S. to lose favor even among some pro-Americanists. As for the kimchi problem, I don't know what to say. That's the same kind of bickering as when France tells people to stop labeling things as champagne. I understand that those things can get brutal, but it's nothing world-changing. Beneath the headlines, South Korea has been quietly strengthening relations with China, because South Korea is not suicidal. The groundwork has to be laid today for the eventuality of a Chinese economy that is at least twice the strength of the U.S. economy. But even without China, at some point people are going to have to learn to live in a way that isn't dictated by the fears of the American empire.

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

#60

Post by blamazon »

judgardner wrote: post #51
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great for Hyundai. Not such a good ROI for the taxpayers who kept BD afloat with decades of DARPA funding.

Assess the DARPA funding as a portfolio.

“DARPA Awards Moderna Therapeutics a Grant for up to $25 Million to Develop Messenger RNA Therapeutics” (2013)

https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-d...

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