Boston Dynamics will start selling its dog-like SpotMini robot in 2019

Re:Boston Dynamics will start selling its dog-like SpotMini ... by aje403 on Monday May 14, 2018 @09:42AM (#17065407)

I don't want to derail the conversation either, but they're owned by softbank which is a glorified holding company of Alibaba (slight exaggeration, granted), so there is a valid tinfoil hat national security argument to be made if there's a million of them running around the street in 10 years.

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Re:Boston Dynamics will start selling its dog-like SpotMini ... by rattray on Monday May 14, 2018 @11:49AM (#17066484)

SoftBank is Japanese and has significant stakes in the US (eg Uber) as well, fwiw.

I'm sympathetic to the underlying sentiment, however. China is starting to look scary and our IP might be worth watching out for.

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Re:Boston Dynamics will start selling its dog-like SpotMini ... by aje403 on Monday May 14, 2018 @02:04PM (#17067845)

Softbank has $150 billion in Alibaba - drew them back from the brink way back iirc. Any foreign ownership in Alibaba relies on the goodwill of the Chinese government. Who knows what relationship they can or will have - don't actually think it's too much of a stretch to question.

Completely agree on the IP

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