When I say that I went hands-on with the new Boston Dynamics Atlas robot, I mean that I actually held hands with it. This humanoid robot, which CNET just awarded the Best Robot of CES Award, is one of the most advanced in the world, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get up close and personal with it.
This product version of the robot, which is set to be shipped to Hyundai factories imminently to start working, has been the talk of CES this year. The specific Atlas robot I encountered was a static model that wasn’t turned on or fully operational. Our interactions were, therefore, sadly one-sided. Still, I ran my hands over its soft-touch plastic shell and gently prodded at its finger joints, wondering how it would feel if they gripped me back.
People tend to have varying feelings about humanoid robots — understandable given that they are built to some degree in our image, while also usually being stronger than us, with “brains” that we don’t fully understand. Atlas definitely evokes contradictory emotions for me — even more so when I stood face-to-face with it.
I’m in awe of the engineering, a little fearful of its capabilities, hesitant about what it could mean for the future of humanity and charmed by its design and styling. The periwinkle blue iteration of Atlas that I met on the show floor at CES 2026 almost bears more resemblance to a Dyson product than it does the industrial robots that defined Boston Dynamics’ early days, when it was best known for its work with DARPA.
“There’s a lot of really specific things about this robot that probably look a little weird,” said Zachary Jackowski, Boston Dynamics VP and general manager of Atlas. He pointed to the legs, which he described as “like nothing anyone else was doing.”
Atlas’ thighs are narrow set and in line with the torso, while the calves are wider set, attached to their upper counterparts with a circular joint. This robot is, in fact, all subtle curves and soft lines. There are no harsh edges or stark angles.
During a year when CES has been flooded with humanoid robots, Atlas definitely does stand out due to its design. It appears both less classically human and less industrial than some of its peers, while also lacking the often intimidating, featureless faces they tend to exhibit. Instead, it has two low-set cameras resembling eyes placed where you’d usually expect a mouth to be. Its face is a perfect flat circle, defined by an LED halo that gives it a somewhat Pixar lamp effect.
I asked Jackowski why Boston Dynamics decided to skew so relatively unhuman with this version of its humanoid. “Well, it’s not a human,” he said. “It projects the wrong first impression about a robot to have it pretend to be something that it’s not.”
Particularly in the early days of humanoids, he added, robots won’t have anything like human-like intelligence. People should look at it and see it for what it is — a tool for performing tasks safely and efficiently.
In fact, most of the design decisions were made to keep Atlas as simple, scalable and safe as possible, Jackowski said. I remark that there’s some irony in thinking of a humanoid robot as simple, given the complexity of the technology and development process to bring Atlas to life.
The key to making it simple, Jackowski said, is having a strong enough grasp of the technology to “accomplish the complex thing of building a humanoid robot,” but then being able to take it apart and understand that you can use fewer computers and actuators in it while achieving the same results.
And it’s essential to Boston Dynamics that Atlas is perceived as simple. After all, it’s a general-purpose humanoid, which might eventually be sent far and wide to fulfil all manner of roles. Jackowski calls it the “ultimate generalist.”
Simplicity aside, there are aspects of Atlas that Jackowski believes set it apart from other humanoids at the show. “The repairability of this robot is crazy good,” he said. “The runtime is crazy good. The strength is unlike anything.”
From working in Hyundai’s manufacturing plants, Atlas’s job trajectory is to eventually graduate to many of the same industrial environments where Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot works, before moving to bussing tables in the service industry and eventually into the home. The robot will evolve between now and then, Jackowski said. However, this could be an early glimpse of the type of humanoid that will eventually be our housemate.
That’s some way away, though, which is probably for the best. As I gaze up at Atlas, which I’d guess is around the same height as my husband, my feeling is that, however impressive Atlas is, I’m still not ready for it to move in.
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