Boston Dynamics

Waltham, near Boston, 1992: that is how the story begins of a company that for three decades taught the world that a machine can run, jump and recover its balance after a shove. Boston Dynamics is now majority-controlled by Hyundai Motor Group, reportedly at around 80 percent according to press reports, and employs about a thousand people. The brand was long associated with videos in which the hydraulic Atlas did backflips. In April 2024 the company retired that version after 11 years and, the same month, showed its fully electric successor. The four-legged Spot went on sale in 2020, the warehouse Stretch was presented in 2021 and entered the lineup a year later. In January 2026, at CES, a production version of Atlas was shown, which, remotely operated, stacked car parts. A month later Robert Playter left the CEO post after 32 years, and the company is being run on an interim basis by its chief financial officer, Amanda McMaster. In summer 2026 Hyundai confirmed a plan to produce 30,000 Atlas units a year in the US by 2028. That is the most important thread of recent years: the move from laboratory demos to factory contracts. The technical background is explained in the article “How Does a Humanoid Robot Work”.

The lineup and announcements include three machines of quite different characters. Boston Dynamics Spot is the reference point for the whole quadruped category: 33.8 kg, a 14 kg payload, about 90 minutes of runtime on a 564 Wh battery, an IP54 enclosure and a temperature range from −20 to 55°C. The price is not published; sales are by inquiry, and the cited USD 74,500 dates from 2020. We write more about this class in quadruped robots. Boston Dynamics Stretch stands at the loading dock and unloads trucks: a seven-axis arm with a vacuum gripper handles boxes up to 22.7 kg, up to 800 pieces per hour, with no SKU coding required. The third, Atlas, is a humanoid 190 cm tall, weighing 90 kg, with 56 degrees of freedom and a 50 kg payload, with an NVIDIA Jetson Thor computer (NVIDIA Jetson) and foundation models from Google DeepMind. All of 2026's production is reserved for Hyundai and DeepMind, so for now it cannot be ordered. Wider context: humanoid robots and mobile robots. The difference in approach is visible at a glance: Spot patrols, Stretch stands and works with its arms, and Atlas has yet to prove that a humanoid can last a shift in a factory.

Boston Dynamics has what most startups lack: the backing of a group that itself needs robots in its factories. Hyundai announces a production capacity of 30,000 Atlas units a year by 2028, and according to statements from August 2026 about 25,000 units of the initial volume are already contracted. Stretch has a documented contract: the logistics company NFI signed a multi-unit agreement worth USD 10 million. According to the manufacturer, Spot works in more than 1,500 units, at customers such as Shell, National Grid and BP. Competitors named among humanoids include Agility Robotics with Digit, Figure AI and Tesla with Optimus; among quadrupeds, the main alternative is the cheaper Unitree Robotics, and in inspection, ANYbotics. Atlas has a strong specification and named customers, but a shorter commercial track record than Digit. Hyundai's plans have also become a source of disputes: the deployment of 25,000 robots became a flashpoint in wage talks with Korea's metalworkers' union.

A permanent Spot distributor on the Polish market has not been confirmed. Hyundai Motor Poland has shown the robot as a display in Hyundai Electrified showrooms in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Poznań and Wrocław, but that is an image campaign, not a sales channel. A company interested in buying must contact Boston Dynamics directly or a regional partner in Europe, expect individual pricing and arrange service on its own. For Stretch and Atlas we found no Polish deployments or offers; in 2026 Atlas goes exclusively to Hyundai and Google DeepMind facilities in the US. A practical guide for the Polish buyer: “Boston Dynamics Spot: Price, Uses and Availability in Poland”.

Boston Dynamics is the strongest brand in mobile robotics and the only one with a full ladder: a proven Spot, a commercial Stretch and Atlas with powerful backing. For the Polish customer today, mainly Spot matters: expensive but mature, for inspection in industry and energy. Stretch is a solution for large-scale logistics, and Atlas remains a promise for the years ahead. The biggest risk: no local support and no open prices. For a cost comparison, see “How Much Does a Humanoid Robot Cost in 2026”.