Boston Dynamics is technically still an Alphabet company, although Google's parent company agreed to sell the maker of too-impressive-for-comfort robots to Japan's Softbank last year. While that deal is in bureaucratic limbo, Boston Dynamics' dogs are learning new tricks.
Spot Mini is a four-legged robot that could almost be cute. The company's robotic pet, of sorts, moves with a dog-like gait that could be charming. It could be, if not for the latest video of the 66-pound bot in action and a particularly disturbing episode of the most recent series of the hit show "Black Mirror."
Boston Dynamics shared a video of one Spot Mini using an arm-like attachment to open a door for its buddy.
Unfortunately, Spot Mini is eerily similar to the murderous robot dogs that roam an apocalyptic landscape in a recent episode of Black Mirror titled "Metalhead." The story set in the near future also shows the robots teaming up, although with much more nefarious aims.
Then again, it's not exactly clear from the short video what this pair of Spot Minis are up to.
Boston Dynamics has been wowing and disturbing us for the past few years with the capabilities of its robots, from its speedy cheetah to the back-flipping Atlas.
To make things weirder, it's not even clear who will have control of this little robot army in the near future. That's because Softbank's acquisition of Boston Dynamics has reportedly run into roadblocks surmounting regulatory hurdles at President Trump's Treasury Department.
So we have spooky tag-teaming robots stuck in bureaucratic limbo, but perhaps that's a good thing.
