- Hyundai subsidiary Boston Dynamics introduced the Atlas robot at CES 2026.
- The company says Atlas will be trained to work in its auto factories, adopting the same strategy that Tesla uses to validate its Optimus robot.
- Hyundai says it will build 30,000 robots globally by 2028, with a large robot factory arriving in America around that time.
Hyundai doesn’t just want to build your car. It wants to build a robot that builds your car, and a robot that delivers your packages, too. Nearly five years after its acquisition of US robotics giant Boston Dynamics, the Korean automaker has announced plans to build 30,000 robots annually starting in 2028. Some of them will look like humans.
This puts it in a direct race with Tesla, which is developing its car Optimus the robot to Yearsand other car players such as Exping. Just like Tesla, the company also says the first job for humanoid robots will be in its car factories, where engineers can keep the clattering under a watchful eye.
So, what exactly is Hyundai planning, and why does the company think it can achieve it?
Photography: Patrick George
What does Hyundai do?
Hyundai is currently expanding Boston Dynamics from an experimental startup into a full-scale robotics brand. The company’s most famous robot, Spot, has been the tip of the spear. The four-legged dog-like creature is already working on construction sites around the world, as a data collection and monitoring tool. (Instant robots are already being used in Hyundai factories, including one Metaplant in Georgia.)
Its sibling, Stretch, is a wheeled box-unloading robot already in operation in a number of markets.
Spot is already a world-beating robot. But the company’s humanoid project, Atlas, is much harder to beat. While specialized robots may offer advantages in many cases, the promise of a general-purpose humanoid robot is much greater, allowing you to replace humans in an individualized manner. To do this, the Atlas will be able to operate completely autonomously, lift up to 110 pounds and replace its battery automatically, the company claims.
It will be able to do this in temperatures between -4°F (-20°C) and 104°F (40°C), and you’ll be able to hose it down and use it in the rain.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says production of Optimus robots will start running at his factory sometime next year, but you know what he thinks about timing.
Photo by: Tesla
The point is that it should work anywhere you would ask a human to work under normal conditions. But first, it will have the same function as the first one Tesla Optimus: Go to work in the car factories of the parent company.
How will they get there?
At CES today, Hyundai said it plans to deploy the Atlas humanoids system at its auto plants, including Metaplant. The company says they will start with simple tasks, such as arranging parts in order. The target for this is 2028, while the company claims that it will assemble complex components by 2030.
The idea is to use the dangerous and complex environment of an automobile factory as a training ground for future robotics workers. Ultimately, however, Hyundai and Boston Dynamics want to produce the robots on a large scale.
It will build 30,000 units annually by 2028, the press release claims, and will build a factory in the United States that has the capacity to build 30,000 units alone. This is part of Hyundai’s new effort to invest $26 billion in the United States over the next four years.
Hyundai will also make robots under its name, such as the MoBed concept delivery robot.
Photo by: Hyundai
But the basis of this plan is a company-wide push to develop “real-world AI” (a term I first heard from Tesla’s Optimus plans). This is already in progress. Hyundai announced a partnership with Nvidia at CES last yearand now he’s adding another heavy hitter to his bench.
While Hyundai and Boston Dynamics develop the robot’s hardware, they will work alongside Google’s DeepMind AI division to develop the software. This is in line with the department’s recently developed “Gemini Robotics” model, which is designed to allow robots to perceive, think about, and interact with the physical world.
This is a major achievement for Hyundai, as DeepMind is widely considered one of the most advanced AI laboratories in the world.
Photography: Patrick George
The company plans to apply its robotics lessons throughout its empire. From its logistics arm to its auto supplier arm to its shipbuilding division to Hyundai-branded consumer-facing robots like this one, Hyundai wants to push robotics across its global holdings. An automated bot may be the holy grail of the market, but there are plenty of other opportunities to make money and cut costs here.
The next battle of robots
Make no mistake: the humanoid robot market is coming, and the competition to dominate it has already begun. However, it is a huge challenge to solve. Replicating the range of motion of the human body requires sophisticated microelectronics for control, advanced joints for flexibility, near-perfect artificial intelligence for balance and perception, and the flexibility needed to survive an unlimited number of movements over a long service life.
No company has proven it can do this. But among those trying, Hyundai Motor Group is among the only companies with clear leadership in robotics and decades of experience in high-precision manufacturing. andNow, the real AI strategy. Let’s see if the company can pull it off.
Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com.
