Maker of robots/nightmare fuel like Spot and Atlas (pictured), Boston Dynamics may face a change of ownership soon according to reports.

Having previously been owned by Google, Softbank Group acquired the robotics firm in 2017.

Now it looks as if automaker Hyundai is going to acquire the firm from Softbank. This is according to a report from Bloomberg (via TechCrunch) which cites people familiar with the matter.

Unfortunately Boston Dymanics, Softbank and Hyundai have declined to comment so for now this is little more than a rumour.

With that having been said, Hyundai acquiring Boston Dynamics might be a strong move.

This is particularly as regards autonomous vehicles.

In 2019, Hyundai and Aptiv announced that the pair would be forming an autonomous driving joint venture. In this venture Hyundai would provide cashflow while Aptiv contributed its autonomous driving tech.

More recently, Hyundai showed off a walking car – no we aren’t joking this is real and rather shocking to behold.

An acquisition of Boston Dynamics by Hyundai then would make sense.

Perhaps most importantly however is the segment of the market that Hyundai operates in (at least from its vehicle manufacturing business) is a bit more affordable than where Tesla is playing.

Perhaps bringing a team like Boston Dynamics onboard would help Hyundai catapult its autonomous driving efforts further than it is now. This is entirely speculation though but this potential acquisition is one to watch.