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Creepy Boston Dynamics Robot Dog Pulls Adam Savage's Rickshaw

So you're Amish and you need horses to pull your carts but are tired of smelling manure? Say no more, we've got just the thing. Adam Savage has proven to the world that you can use a yellow robot that looks like a decapitated dog to pull a small rickshaw.
Creepy Boston Dynamics Robot Dog Pulls Adam Savage's Rickshaw 4 photos
Photo: YouTube screenshot/Adam Savage's Tested
Creepy Boston Dynamics Robot Dog Pulls Adam Savage's RickshawCreepy Boston Dynamics Robot Dog Pulls Adam Savage's RickshawCreepy Boston Dynamics Robot Dog Pulls Adam Savage's Rickshaw
On second thought, better not do that. If the Amish are against something as simple as a car, getting pulled by this thing might get you shunned by the community entirely.

We often say that Boston Dynamics' Spot (and pretty much all their other robots) is the creepiest thing in the world. However, there's no getting around the fact that it's the most capable machine of its kind.

The former MythBuster just took delivery of this yellow quadruped a few weeks ago and started doing experiments. The first idea that popped into his head is to ride the thing like a horse, but that's not possible due to the weight restrictions. Instead, Adam built a little rickshaw over a couple of days so that Spot the robot can pull it.

On its first attempt, the robot has difficulty pulling Adam up a slight angle. However, some engineers are on hand and re-program it. On the second try, Spot almost looks like he's putting its weight into it.

The robot went on sale last year, and although we don't know what it costs, it's said to be less than a luxury car, so in the tens of thousands. Still, a real dog might have been cheaper and pulled that rickshaw more easily.

"Last month we started delivering robots to customers, as part of an early adopter program. The question we’re posing to these early customers is ‘what do you think spot can do for you that’s valuable?’ We had some initial ideas, but it’s all our thinking and the hope is that this program will enable a whole new set of use cases," Boston Dynamics VP of business development Michael Perry told TechCrunch.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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