Hyundai plans Atlas pilot tests for external customers next year as it scales humanoid robot commercialization and faces rising competition from BYD and Samsung Electronics.
Hyundai Motor Group is extending its humanoid robot Atlas beyond internal testing, with Boston Dynamics planning the first pilot programs for external customers next year as the company pushes toward broader commercialization. Atlas has so far been tested within Hyundai Motor Group manufacturing sites, but the next phase is intended to validate its competitiveness in outside industrial settings while gathering new operating data. Boston Dynamics said Atlas is being built around customer-level “collective intelligence,” allowing skills learned by one robot at a workplace to be applied across all Atlas units owned by that customer. The company is also emphasizing non-verbal safety signaling, including body turns, warning lights and automatic load placement when workers enter predefined safety zones, alongside control options such as voice recognition and portable remote controllers for noisy factory environments. The update adds to Hyundai’s existing push to industrialize Atlas in the United States. The group has already begun selecting a U.S. production base for mass production through Robotics America, targeting annual capacity of 30,000 robots by 2028. Atlas is scheduled for deployment at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Georgia from 2028, initially for sequencing tasks, with expansion to more complex assembly work from 2030. Hyundai is also broadening its factory automation effort through Hyundai Wia, which plans to invest 400 billion won, about $273.8 million, in robotics over the mid to long term for production facilities in Changwon and strategic investments in AI startups. The moves come as global competition intensifies: BYD has hinted at a humanoid robot unveiling in early August, while Samsung Electronics has created an RX division under the CEO to build robotics as a new growth business. Industry observers say the contest will likely be determined less by demonstrations than by whether humanoid robots can prove safe, reliable and economically viable in real manufacturing environments.