Boston Dynamics' Robot Atlas Now Does Parkour

Heyyyyyyyy, amigos, would any of y’all like a hug? No? Maybe you will after you watch Boston Dynamics’ robot Atlas do some mad parkour. Seriously, though, come here, let’s all hug each other’s fleshy bodies while we still can.

This brand new, amazing/frightening video was, of course, posted by Boston Dynamics, the operation that’ll eventually become known as the real life Cyberdyne Systâ€”err creators of really fun jumping and rolling and door opening robots that’ll definitely never have a will of their own!Boston Dynamics wrote in the description for the video thatÂ “the control software uses the whole body including legs, arms and torso, to marshal the energy and strength for jumping over the log and leaping up the steps without breaking its pace.” Which sounds exactly like something an executive fromÂ Omni Consumer Products would say right before introducing the ED-209 law enforcement droid.Keep in mind that the big highlight here is that Atlas is using machine vision to navigate its environment, which means you could change up the obstacles and it would be just as effective at figuring out how to overcome them.

Right, so SpaceX is landing rockets and going to Mars, Google’s A.I. is learning complex gamesÂ at superhuman speed, and Boston Dynamics is building the Terminator. 2018 people! No jet packs, but things sure are getting interesting!What are your thoughts on this updated Atlas? How fast can you run from a robot that moves so quickly you can only see it with a strobe light? Let us know in the comments!

Images: YouTube / Boston DynamicsÂ