Before Google bought Boston Dynamics, BD was strictly a DoD contractor. The military wants big, strong, rugged robots, and BD was headed there. (Even though the USMC rejected the Legged Squad Support System, the militarized version of BigDog.) DARPA was providing much of the funding. It took about $120 million to get to the good version of BigDog.

Then Google bought six robotics companies, including BD, which dropped their existing customer base and went quiet. For several years, the robotics community was wondering what great things Google was developing. In the end, it turns out the answer was "not much".

The amusing thing is that Google/Alphabet worried about their image from owning a company that makes a big humanoid robot. Google survived paying $500,000,000 to DoJ to avoid felony charges after they were caught knowingly selling AdWords to an FBI undercover operation pretending to be a Mexican drug lord trying to take over the US steroids market.[1] It's not like Google has a cuddly image.

If Toyota wants a robotics company, they should probably buy Schaft, which is already in Japan, from Alphabet. There just don't seem to be civilian applications for BD's hydraulic machines. Also, it's about time for Marc Raibert, the BD CEO, to retire; he's about 67 now.

[1] http://searchengineland.com/wsj-government-sting-google-phar...