Hyundai Wants To Use Robotics To Help You Pet Your Dog From Hundreds Of Miles Away

Hyundai wants to unmoor the users of its products from physical space, using robotics and the metaverse to create a remote-controlled world. That’s according to a presentation it gave today at CES.

The automaker doesn’t really want to be thought of as just an automaker anymore and will use its technology to create new robots that can allow people to accomplish tasks in physical space from thousands of miles away, or experience a virtual world that never existed through “Metamobility.”

“We envision future mobility solutions made possible by advanced robotics—even expanding our mobility solutions to Metamobility,” said Euisun Chung, the Group’s Executive Chair, during his presentation. “This vision will enable unlimited freedom of movement and progress for humanity.”

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Through the clever use of robots, Hyundai wants to create more ways to accomplish tasks remotely. That could mean using a robot to feed your pets at home, or even using it to give them a hug. If that sounds kind of expensive, the automaker expects these virtual-robotic connections to also take place in factories, which is a bit more grim. Using a “robotic avatar” via a virtual reality interface, a worker could manipulate things in a factory with a robot from a remote worksite.

“The idea behind Metamobility is that space, time, and distance will all become irrelevant,” said Chang Song, head of the Transportation-as-a-Service division at Hyundai Motor Group. “Going one step further from the immersive ‘be there’ proxy experience that the metaverse provides, robots will become an extension of our own physical senses, allowing us to reshape and enrich our daily lives.”

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Additionally, people who still exist in the physical world may get some help from Hyundai’s robotics. With exoskeletons, humans can be supported in their work by robots, whether or not they’re connected to a virtual reality or a, you know, regular reality.

Although time and space are set to become irrelevant, Hyundai still has plans for its vehicles in the future. Instead of just being a means of transportation, an automobile could become an office or a 3D gaming lounge. By connecting to virtual spaces, the automaker is planning exciting new in-car VR experiences for its users.

The company will also use its experience as an automaker to bring mobility to things, not just people. It has developed a single-wheel platform onto which pretty much any object can be placed.

The platform is scalable and the single wheel steers, brakes, and drives it. By placing objects on it, it becomes mobile and can come to us, rather than waiting there stupidly to be picked up.

“In the world to come, we will not move our things, but things will actually move around us with the PnD module making traditionally inanimate objects mobile,” said Dong Jin Hyun, the head of Hyundai Motor Group Robotics Lab. “We are directing all our ambitious robotics engineering and creative efforts towards realizing an even bigger vision than ever—the unlimited Mobility of Things ecosystem.”