Last week, Boston Dynamics introduced to us their new humanoid robot capable of working in what they recreated was similar to a construction site. They shared a video of its robot, Atlas’s impressive ability to maneuver around the site and to deliver a bag of tools that a worker forgot to take with him onto a scaffolding and then ended with an impressive backflip.
But it only took a few hours for people to notice that within the video were many OSHA violations. Hence the video to show off massively backfired because of the setting of the video and if OSHA were to inspect this work site, Atlas would more or less be fired which is the complete opposite of what Boston Dynamics were attempting to achieve.
Boston Dynamics recently tweeted out a video of Atlas, which showed that even robots aren’t perfect. The video contained some behind-the-scenes bloopers and they were very comical. Originally, the video titled “Atlas Gets a Grip,” was found terrifying by some people as well as it portrayed how far humanoid robots have come.
But in this video, Atlas fails miserably in all sorts of ways that most of us can probably relate to, like tripping over itself while scooting backward and then falling on its ass. Or doing an impressive trick like a backflip and then fumbling its celebration right after. Or like many of us can relate more, freezing up when everyone’s watching.
In the bloopers video, we see Atlas tumbling off of an unsecured plank bridge by missing a step, which is why we have walkways that are at least a foot and a half wide, provide guard rails, and provide fall protection. And in another instance Atlas, after doing a backflip, Atlas seems to lose its bearings.
Hence, for the people who are fueled by fear of such weird humanoid robots taking over, we still have time.