Google Buys Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics, makers of terrifying quadruped (and soon bi-ped) robots, has been acquired by Google:

“It is the eighth robotics company that Google has acquired in the last half-year. Executives at the Internet giant are circumspect about what exactly they plan to do with their robot collection. But Boston Dynamics and its animal kingdom-themed machines bring significant cachet to Google’s robotic efforts, which are being led by Andy Rubin.”
-- New York Times

Even though it's unlikely to lead to any commercial success anytime soon, the possibilities are indeed terrifying. If you think glassholes are annoying, wait until people walk into bars accompanied by their walking/talking Google Androids.

Boing-Boing has a nice montage of the kinds of devices Boston Dynamics have released so far.

I certainly wouldn't want any of them delivering packages to my home shiver.

Related: Tech, Business.