This tech company is flipping the switch to the future — but some are scared that future looks a little too close to a science fiction horror movie.
Boston Dynamics introduced its latest humanlike robot Wednesday that is meant to take on the real world.
The robotics company announced it has come up with a fully electric robot called Atlas that will send its older model — which was hydraulic-powered — to rust in peace.
The newest model meant for commercial use is designed to tackle “real-world applications” following decades of research, Boston Dynamics said.
“The electric version of Atlas will be stronger, with a broader range of motion than any of our previous generations,” the company said on its website.
While the previous version could lift and move different heavy objects, the newest model expands on those abilities with new gripping mechanisms.
Boston Dynamics gave the public a sneak peek of the new and improved Atlas in a video posted on social media that shows the robot lying on the ground before it’s able to get to its feet and walk toward the camera akin to a scene out of the movie “I, Robot.”
The new bot, which has a similar build to a human, seems to have 360-degree range mobility of each of its joints. It stands up in an unusual and unnatural way, with its legs bending backward and its torso and head spinning from facing back to front.
The robot then walks off as the camera cuts off.
“We promise this is not a person in a bodysuit,” the company tweeted along with the video that some users found eerie.
“Might not be a person in a suit but it still looks creepy,” one user said.
Others compared its unnatural movements to a scene from The Exorcist or The Ring.
“BD: ‘we need to make it look friendly and humanoid’ Also BD: ‘make it stand up like he needs an exorcism,’” another replied to the tweet.
“You guys need to rewatch terminator,” another user wrote in reference to the movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Boston Dynamics is working with Hyundai, which it merged with in 2021, to “test and iterate” Atlas applications over the next few years.
“This is the first look at a real product,” the company said. “But it certainly isn’t the last.”
“In the months and years ahead, we’re excited to show what the world’s most dynamic humanoid robot can really do – in the lab, in the factory, and in our lives,” the company also said.
Boston Dynamics partnered with the NYPD last year to roll out several crime-fighting robots to patrol Times Square and subway stations.
