Hyundai buys Robotic Spot.... oh and the rest of Boston Dynamics too

[rcmaehl]

Summary

A Sonata for you Robotic Spot? Hyundai has purchased Boston Dynamics for $921M. An interesting acquisition to say the least.

 

Quotes

Quote

Boston Dynamics,... according to a report published Wednesday by The Korea Economic Daily,... got bought by Hyundai for around $921 million. Yes, the very same Hyundai that's hammering out...affordable automobiles for you to buy will now be getting deeper into the robot business with an eye on future mobility. Does this mean we'll get self-driving cars sooner, or will we get a robot to help us pedal our tandem bikes? Who knows? In reality, this will probably be a leg up for the company in designing industrial robots or robots meant for use in logistics. This acquisition is the first to be helmed by Hyundai's new chairperson Chung Euisun since he took the job back in October, and rumors of the buyout have been circulating since early November.

Quote

Softbank has agreed to sell the robot maker for 1 trillion won (US$917 million). The companies have been discussing a sale since at least early November, based on a previous report by Bloomberg. Boston Dynamics is known for its nightmare-inducing (or oddly adorable, depending on your perspective) robotic dog Spot, which it started selling in mid—2020 for $75,000. The company is also behind the humanoid robot Atlas that’s agile enough to do handstands and parkour. Hyundai Motor has been investing heavily in robotics over the past couple of years and vowed to invest up to 1.5 trillion won (US$1.4 billion) in the industry by 2025. It has mostly focused on manufacturing wheeled robots for factory use, though, instead designing machines as interesting as Spot and Atlas.

 

My thoughts

For some reason I was confusing Boston Dynamics for Global Dynamics at first and was surprised that, one, a defense contractor got bought out by a South Korean Company, and two, that it sold for so little. Thankfully, that's not the case. I think it'll be pretty interesting to see the Boston Dynamics robots with the Hyundai logo in the future. Regardless, Boston Dynamics seems to have some of the most widely known robots and I would have funded or bought them too if I was a company needing to invest in robots like Hyundai is.

 

Sources

CNet (First quote)

Engadget (Second quote)

[TempestCatto]

So does that mean they'll start including a robo  doggo with every purchase of a brand new Hyundai car? I'll gladly sell my kidneys for that!

[rcmaehl]

Just now, TempestCatto said:

So does that mean they'll start including a robo  doggo with every purchase of a brand new Hyundai car? I'll gladly sell my kidneys for that!

Only in the Genesis brand cars though.

[Spotty]

1 minute ago, TempestCatto said:

So does that mean they'll start including a robo  doggo with every purchase of a brand new Hyundai car? I'll gladly sell my kidneys for that!

Pretty sure a Boston Dynamics dog costs more than most of Hyundai's cars. Buy two Spot's and you get a free Hyundai Elantra.

[ToboRobot]

5 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

So does that mean they'll start including a robo  doggo with every purchase of a brand new Hyundai car? I'll gladly sell my kidneys for that!

It mean the robots that build you car are going to continue to have jobs.

[rcmaehl]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

Pretty sure a Boston Dynamics dog costs more than most of Hyundai's cars. Buy two Spot's and you get a free Hyundai Elantra.

I know your game. The Elantra is going to be the base or fleet model with like no features > : ( 

[RejZoR]

6 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

So does that mean they'll start including a robo  doggo with every purchase of a brand new Hyundai car? I'll gladly sell my kidneys for that!

Hyundai preparing for world domination with Transformers.

[poochyena]

I wonder why. Google and Softbank both bought and then sold the company after just a few years. This seems like a company that obviously has no immediate source of income and almost purely a research company, so I'd think google and softbank would buy it with that understood and keep it for decades. So i'm not sure the logic of buying and then selling a few years later.

[Velcade]

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

Pretty sure a Boston Dynamics dog costs more than most of Hyundai's cars. Buy two Spot's and you get a free Hyundai Elantra.

Two dogs could power an Elantra. 

[PlayStation 2]

The very same Hyundai shoving out mediocre CVT transmissions that fail within 10,000 miles?

[RejZoR]

19 minutes ago, handymanshandle said:

The very same Hyundai shoving out mediocre CVT transmissions that fail within 10,000 miles?

I mean, if you look at something incredibly specific and absurd, you'll find every company failing at things. Must be American thing since everything is automatic there. Also CVT's are yuck in general, but if I remember KBB review right, Hyundai's CVT's were the least annoying compared to other droning whining ones.

[Sauron]

2 hours ago, TempestCatto said:

So does that mean they'll start including a robo  doggo with every purchase of a brand new Hyundai car? I'll gladly sell my kidneys for that!

That robot is probably more expensive than the average Hyundai car

[S w a t s o n]

921M for the most advanced robotics company on earth seems kind of cheap no?

[Minicoop]

Maybe its just a marketing ploy to put robots in the cars to drive them around in order to advertise their new products.

[PlayStation 2]

1 hour ago, RejZoR said:

I mean, if you look at something incredibly specific and absurd, you'll find every company failing at things. Must be American thing since everything is automatic there. Also CVT's are yuck in general, but if I remember KBB review right, Hyundai's CVT's were the least annoying compared to other droning whining ones.

I'm not just trying to pick on Hyundai. Every automaker has bad shit in their lineup, Toyota included. That doesn't mean I can't make fun of the fact that Hyundai's CVTs are appearing to be comically unreliable or the fact that they tend to have rather high engine repair rates. 

[bcredeur97]

1 hour ago, S w a t s o n said:

921M for the most advanced robotics company on earth seems kind of cheap no?

they don't make very much money, if any. (yet)

[Blade of Grass]

2 hours ago, poochyena said:

I wonder why. Google and Softbank both bought and then sold the company after just a few years. This seems like a company that obviously has no immediate source of income and almost purely a research company, so I'd think google and softbank would buy it with that understood and keep it for decades. So i'm not sure the logic of buying and then selling a few years later.

Hyundai makes a lot of industrial automation robots, from my understanding. So I suspect they bought Boston Dynamics to improve their industrial business.

 

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

[Master Disaster]

7 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

they don't make very much money, if any. (yet)

They're currently forecast to make a little shy of $50M in revenue for 2020 so they are making money.

[sub68]

15 minutes ago, Blade of Grass said:

Hyundai makes a lot of industrial automation robots, from my understanding. So I suspect they bought Boston Dynamics to improve their industrial business.

 

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

also korean and japanesse car companies are famous for doing other interesting industries like millatery contracts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_equipment_of_the_Republic_of_Korea_Army#Tanks

also samsung does millatery contracts

[Blade of Grass]

24 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

They're currently forecast to make a little shy of $50M in revenue for 2020 so they are making money.

$50M revenue on a almost $1Bn valuation is almost nothing, none the less does it speak to profitability. Amazon is only valued at about ~5 times revenue, Apple at ~8 revenue. Boston Dynamics was bought for 20x revenue. Puts it into the Tesla realm of astronomical valuations. 

[Master Disaster]

10 minutes ago, Blade of Grass said:

$50M revenue on a almost $1Bn valuation is almost nothing, none the less does it speak to profitability. Amazon is only valued at about ~5 times revenue, Apple at ~8 revenue. Boston Dynamics was bought for 20x revenue. Puts it into the Tesla realm of astronomical valuations. 

Totally fair.

[suicidalfranco]

When a voxel game is worth more than a robotic research company

[ThePointblank]

Hyundai is a massive South Korean chaebol or conglomerate, with business activities in a variety of business sectors beyond cars. It's the second biggest chaebol after Samsung by valuation I believe.

 

So yeah, not totally out of whack of what the company's interests and capabilities are, since they have a hand in almost everything.

[williamcll]

I'm guessing neither Softbank nor Google have the industrial support to grow Boston Dynamics so that's why they got sold off.

 

Can't wait for a Hyundai robo horse.