Boston Dynamics, Hyundai’s robotics arm, has just pulled the curtain back on its next-gen humanoid robot, Atlas, at CES 2026. For the first time, the tech-enthusiastic public got to see the Atlas robot in action as it strolled onto the stage in Las Vegas and waved at the crowd and even turned its head with a surprisingly human touch. People could not help but be impressed by how smooth and balanced it looked. Sure, someone was operating Atlas remotely for the demo, but Boston Dynamics made it clear: Atlas is built to work on its own in everyday environments.
The company has not just been showing off Atlas being developed to step right into Hyundai’s electric vehicle factory near Savannah, Georgia. They are further aiming at rolling out a production-ready version by 2028.
The plan of the company?
Have Atlas handle those repetitive, tough tasks on the assembly line that wear humans out. For Hyundai, this is all part of a bigger push to make factories safer and more efficient by mixing robotics and AI.
Atlas has a brain
What really sets Atlas apart is its brain. Boston Dynamics is teaming up with Google DeepMind to pack Atlas with some serious intelligence. They’re integrating the Gemini Robotics AI model, which should help Atlas tackle more complex jobs and adapt on the fly—getting robots closer to the way humans think through problems.
Atlas is not entering an empty field, though. Tesla and a bunch of startups are all racing to build robots that can do real work side by side with people. With Hyundai in its corner and DeepMind’s AI under the hood, Atlas looks like it’s going to be a real heavyweight in this space.
Boston Dynamics is not new to the game, either. They have been making robotics headlines for years—remember Spot, the robot dog?
Hyundai bought a majority stake in the company back in 2021, doubling down on its bet that robots and smart tech are the future of mobility and manufacturing. The big Atlas reveal at CES 2026 shows that humanoid robots are finally stepping out of the lab and onto the factory floor.