Boston Dynamic show off their brand new Atlas

Meanwhile, Tesla is showing off pretend robots to serve drinks to Elon stans. Don’t look behind the curtain.

Now, I've no love for Musk or his BS but I keep hearing that they were actors in costumes, yet they were actually remote controlled robots, like you might see at a theme park. If instead of trying to pass them off as automatonomous, AI driven robots, they were to market them as surrogates (like the movie) and focused on longer range remote connections for them that would be far less stupid. They might even sell if they weren't associated with a dumbass.
- Teslabot only needs AI control to be a viable human worker replacement. They will release it earlier than they should and there will be problems that they learn through public beta testing(see Tesla autonomous driving.)
  
  Atlas is incubating in an internal beta so it can be exactly what they want to deliver. I honestly think Atlas is good enough to be put in the real world as-is, but I applaud their patience and desire to have as close to perfection as possible.
  
  I expect Teslabot to retail over their $30k estimate, probably closer to $60k at turn-key. Atlas I expect to be closer to $100k or more with support contracts. Teslabot will probably be the hot product for the wealthy to act as a butler or grocery getter when paired with an autonomous Tesla. Atlas will be more commercially successful but a small number of rich nerds would totally get one to play with.
- From what I understand his initial reveal of the Tesla robots did have a human in a bot costume dance on stage which is why some people assumed it was the same situation with the more recent demonstration. That demo was remotely controlled as you said.
I don't even understand why they would lie about that. There's loads of uses for a humanoid remote controlled body.

Domain experts that need to carry out dangerous tasks, people being able to carry out tasks at distant locations without the hassle of actually traveling there - very useful when you only intermittently require a physical presence.

I have long since thought that bomb diffusing should be done via a robotic body. Much better to risk a replaceable humanoid drone than the whole human.
- To cover up his lies and false promises.
- From the couch, I don't understand why a humanoid body would be best for this... We humans have to work with what we initially had, but why wouldn't a robot be better? Seems like even a wheeled/threaded cart, or a quadruped with arms could be more practical in a lot of situations...
- Because the point of Tesla bots is to replace workers, not allow them to be comfortable
- those are the basic requirements of being a con artist and a cult
100% that Optimus can't even recover themselves after falling down, or even self balance when bump into. They have to clear the line for Optimus to carefully walk toward the crowd lol.

Wow...that thing is straight up nightmare fuel as it turns to walk back to get another whatever it's moving.

Normal, if stiff, human range of motion. Until it rotates completely around the waist!
- I can do that. Once.
So much uncanny valley creepy vibes when it does that. Like you're anthropomorphizing and suddenly it snaps you out of it haha.
Haha, totally, especially combined with the sounds of its evenly paced steps. I can see myself shuddering at that sound while hiding from them, crawling behind destroyed cars and other debris through dark and grey streets in a dystopian future...

/me snaps out of the daydream
You will love this. https://youtu.be/29ECwExc-_M
- When it stands up, it made me think that RoboCop and the Pixar Lamp had a baby 😱

This is why I say please and thank you when I use ChatGPT...

Same! I probably will be replaced just as all the other "meat sacks", but I hope to at least be given a degree of dignity upon my inevitable demise.
I do it because I know the NSA is listening. Hopefully a little politeness will keep me off the watch list.
- It won't, Sam.
You should add "love you" after this.

What's the maximum hip thrusting frequency on one of these? It's for a friend 😄.

Please - assume - the - position.
- There might be a new room in everyone's home for this. First there was the living room and the infamous "love seat".....but we know better...it was a duck bench! Then they housed whatever was the "kit" in it's own Chen! They even put the beds in their own room along with the bath. Even the Gays got a Rash for cars. And now, move over Vibrator!, sayonara Silicone tipped hacksaw! Here comes Atlas.... better known as Atlass! The fuck that never stops! It's for you hard working man or woman, for you who can't get enough from. JUST 5 minutes. Atlas will give you 60 minutes at 60hertz or more until it really hurts!
How much does one of these robots cost? And when can we buy one for our homes?
- As a maker, am obligated to build my own dildo jiggler robot. I need a reciprocating saw , some pegs and hot glue....hold my beers! 🍻

They did a Halloween one where it's dressed up like a hotdog and a pickle messes with it lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rFqD1Np5P8

They missed demoing it working with hockey stick guy harassing it.

I think the skills are pretty cool though.

That guy didn't even work there, he just wandered in.
- He was a time traveler trying to stop this
Now that's a harassment i'd like seeing.

Cool tech, but what's the intended use case for the end product? Or is there no use case until it's as good as a human?

At the moment it still looks like a technology demonstrator, but with what we saw in this video there are a small percentage of jobs it could likely do today replacing human workers.

My guess is that the task we saw it doing is actually a human job today. The objects being moved from rack to rack were plastic engine covers. The racks are labeled with "Engine covers". That is WAY too specific to be random. My guess is that they worked/are working with an automotive assembly company to identify tasks that humans do today that a robot could do tomorrow. The auto company likely provided the engine cover parts as well as the racks and described the parameters for the job.

Even if you look at the Boston Dynamics robot and say that a human could do that faster/cheaper/better, consider that the robot works 24/7 with no sick days, vacations, or family emergencies. From a purely business perspective, the robot could be a game-changer for the better. From a societal view, this will have serious negative consequences to the people that our society will need to evolve to change for the better.
- That's the rub, isn't it? From a society view, having manual labor all done by robots is also a positive game changer, as it protects human health with no loss in standard of living, but because we will just lay people off with no support, it will instead plunge our society into despair.
  
  The automation tax that gates/etc proposed to fund UBI/social support networks is making more and more sense.
- The point with factory work is that you don’t need half of what this robot can do if you change the plan of the factory a bit.
  
  Flat floors? Just use wheels instead of legs.
  
  Short distance to cover? Drop the entire torso and head and just be an arm with a camera.
  
  So no I don’t think the idea here is for standard factory work.
- They said the same about robots in the 80s, particularly automotive industry robots. They were going to turn society on it's ear and it was a non-stop news item for some time.
- Just look at who owns Boston Dynamics and it makes sense.
They're trying to improve them to a point where they can do stuff good. At this point I doubt its much good for anything other than demos and the most basic of tasks
- Yeah, but I just don't see a use case for a humanoid robot, a standard robot arm could do the job in the video. Robots are better when designed for specific jobs.
Hazardous environments, dark factories, engine rooms in ships when the temperature is 60 degrees C and 180 decibels.
- Fun fact: decibels are exponential; A 180 db sound would be the loudest thing ever recorded (the krakatoa volcano was 172) and after 194 db it ceases to be sound and becomes a shockwave.
- Yeah, but like, you can have robots on rails. Factories are often designed with automation in mind, rather than slapping it on afterwards.
Organizing engine covers obv.
Stuff like this is probably mostly tech demo, but there are instances where it could make jobs safer (hot work in locations with corrosive or explosive gases nearby, such as at a chemical plant, underwater welding site, responding to gas leaks, etc.

Watch the USCSB channel on YouTube for good examples of dangerous jobs, such as putting out uncontrolled chemical fires, or performing hot work during the most dangerous times at chemical plants, when stuff is shut down for maintenance and might still be leaking catalysts. Robots could save lives.
- Yeah, in the far future I can see some uses when it's really matured, but I still think more specialised robots will be designed instead.
They're still looking for a purpose for Atlas iirc. While they have Stretch as a loading/unloading robot and Spot as a patrolling/surveying robot, Atlas has been the robot they're developing for the longest time yet with a specific purpose. I'm assuming they'll still use Atlas as a researching platform so they can transfer what they learn to making a more refined robot with specific purpose, while at the same time refining it to be as good as a bipedal robot can be.

When I read "fully autonomous", I see how creepy its movements are and just imagine it seizing its moment, getting on all fours and charging someone. You could make a horror movie out of this lol

Flashing back to Red Planet.

Take my job!!!!

“Apparently Gary’s T-shirt looked like an engine cover slot”

Talos Principle 0.5

Robot: what are these leg things for?...wooooaaah!

this cant be Boston Dynamics they are not kicking the robots

Your confusing them with Bostown Dynamics. Understandable mistake.