When Hyundai acquired the robotics giant Boston Dynamics in 2021, very few observers thought that using mechanical dogs to spot-check welds in car factories would be the endgame. Today, at CES 2026, Hyundai offered a detailed look at what it really wants to do with robots: make them more humanlike, and then put them to work building cars.
The goal, Hyundai officials said, is simple: better safety, better quality, more durability and reliability, and at lower production costs.
But it doesn't take a robotics expert to know that automating car production at that level could transform the nature of human work, or even put human workers out of a job. And yet, Hyundai officials who spoke to reporters at CES were candid about what could happen to labor if this plan succeeds: things are going to change, just not right away.
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