Hyundai's Boston Dynamics revealed its next-gen humanoid robot Atlas at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The company says the robot is production-ready and could enter Hyundai's component assembly lines by 2030. Long-term, it's expected to take on heavy lifting, repetitive tasks, and complex operations across factories.

The droid has a reach of about 2.3 meters, can lift up to 50 kilograms and operate in freezing temperatures of minus 20 to 40 degrees Celsius.

But what really sets it apart is its super-human range of motion due to a whopping 56 degrees of freedom capacity and human-scale hands with tactile sensing.

It can complete tasks with no help from humans, including recharging itself. It simply walks to the battery station and swaps out its pack for a new one! But it's not the first robot capable of doing so.

China's UBTECH Robotics unveiled the Walker S2 humanoid robot in November 2025, featuring the world's first autonomous, hot-swappable battery system, allowing it to swap depleted batteries for charged ones in under three minutes without human intervention.

But the trend is clear: more and more carmakers are now moving into humanoid robots as they already own the supply chains, motors, sensors, and AI control systems needed to build robots at scale. 

(Cover image by CGTN's Huang Ruiqi)