Its name is Atlas, an all-electric humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics, the Massachusetts-based company and maker of the four-legged inspection robot, Spot, and the mobile warehouse robot, Stretch. Hyundai, which owns Boston Dynamics, unveiled the latest version of Atlas at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 5. During live demonstrations, Atlas was seen waving hello to its audience before moving car parts from one rack to another.
Elon Musk wants the world to view Tesla Inc. ( NASDAQ: TSLA) as a robotics and artificial intelligence company. The truth is, it makes money from cars. It remains the number one electric vehicle (EV) company in the United States, with half the market. While it is slipping in China and Europe, it retains a strong presence in both places.
Euisun Chung, the Executive Chairman at the Hyundai Motor Group, has sounded the alarm on what a difficult year 2026 could become for the car-making game. Not just for Hyundaialthough the South Korean automaker is likely at the top of his list of concernsbut for the entire global auto industry. Things have shifted. Free trade across to one of the brand's largest markets has become less about being free and more about being how well a country can negotiate tariffs for its various industries.
Hyundai's subsidiary Boston Dynamics introduced its humanoid robot, "Atlas," at CES 2026. The company says Atlas will be trained to work in its auto plants, adopting the same strategy that Tesla is using to validate its "Optimus" humanoid. Hyundai says it will build 30,000 robots globally by 2028, with a big robotics plant coming to America around then. Hyundai doesn't just want to build your car. It wants to build the robot that builds your car, and the ones that deliver your packages, too.
Finally, they've revealed the Mobile Eccentric Droid, a.k.a. MobED, a mobility robot platform tailored for a diverse range of industrial and everyday-use applications. The bot was shown off at the International Robot Exhibition 2025 (iREX 2025) in Tokyo. According to Dong Jin Hyun, Vice President and Head of Hyundai Motor Group Robotics LAB, the new robot will help "accelerate a future where humans and robots coexist." The most exciting bit, it'll be up for sale in the first half of 2026.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has gone from a little-known tech executive to a globally famous AI superstar very, very fast - and one photo from his trip to South Korea this week shows it. During the trip - which coincides with President Donald Trump's meeting with China's leader, Xi Jinping - Huang did what many businesspeople do on trips and met some contacts for dinner.
Undeterred by the recent ICE raid that rounded up hundreds of its workers in Georgia, Hyundai announced a fresh slate of investments in the US, including $2.7 billion into the EV battery factory where the raid took place. The automaker also plans to release a range of new electrified models, including extended-range EVs and over a dozen hybrid vehicles by 2030. But it will expand its gas-powered lineup with the debut of a mid-sized pickup truck for North America in 2030.
The circumstances of the raid were just absolutely abusive, not only in their scope and just the sheer size of it, but the way that the folks at the Hyundai plant were treated by law enforcement,
Thus far, 2025 has been a good year for Hyundai. Earlier this month, J.D. Power named the automaker the top mass-market brnd when it comes to technology; testing earlier in the year also showed that Hyundai's Supercharger access resulted in faster charging speeds than one of Tesla's own vehicles. Even as Hyundai has gotten high marks for its line of vehicles, it also has bigger plans in mind, as a recent announcement over investment in the U.S. demonstrates.
Technology is the key, according to Hyundai's executive chair, Euisun Chung. In a recent interview with Automotive News, Chung gave a crash course in automotive self-preservation. The brand's leader made it clear that for Hyundai-or any automaker, really-to succeed, it must not only adopt changes to the market quickly, but in a meaningful way that meets customer needs. That means embracing what Chung calls "breakthrough technologies" in the industry.