Spot the four-legged yellow robot is finally on the market.
After years of eyeing its progress, watching viral videos showing Spot’s hauntingly life-like movements, and finding uses unique to our coronavirus-ravaged world, you can finally have your very own Spot for a mere $74,500.
Boston Dynamics, the company that created Spot, announced the robot as their first ever online sales offering in a press release Tuesday. For now, Spot is for commercial and industrial use and is only available in the U.S.
“Spot comes ready to operate, right out of the box” and “can be adapted for tasks ranging from industrial inspection to entertainment,” Boston Dynamics notes. The robot can take place of human employees in unsafe or monotonous conditions.
Though the headless dog robot has a somewhat villainous aesthetic, the company wants Spot to be used for good, not evil. Boston Dynamics’ vice president of business development, Michael Perry, told The Verge the company will enforce a code of use: the robot should not be used to harm or intimidate people, and no weapons may be attached. If those rules are broken, the license will be invalidated and the customer won’t be able to use Spot.
But there’s bad news if you’re just looking for a cool companion. Boston Dynamics noted, “we specifically don’t want people to just be using it at home for fun.” So maybe, for now, go with cheaper, alive option.
