On the 5th (local time), at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, New York, during the World Cup round of 16 between Brazil and Norway. When halftime arrived, Atlas, the Humanoid Robot from Boston Dynamics, Hyundai Motor Group's robotics affiliate, walked out of the players' tunnel. Atlas mimicked the goal celebrations of star players such as Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, and Son Heung-min, handed the official World Cup match ball to the referee, and signaled the start of the second half.
On the 8th, according to Hyundai Motor, major foreign outlets gave prominent coverage to Atlas' performance. They analyzed the significance of publicly demonstrating Atlas to a global audience on the World Cup stage and expressed expectations for applying Robotics technology to manufacturing sites. This was the first time Atlas performed in front of a large crowd.
First, the U.S. business magazine Fortune called Atlas' halftime performance "unprecedented in FIFA history." It also praised next-generation humanoid technology that learns on its own and adapts to diverse environments, unlike conventional programming-based industrial robots.
Fortune noted that, unlike conventional industrial robots that execute preprogrammed commands, Atlas operates by learning human movements on its own and adapting to new environments. It said this learning approach is closer to that of large language models (LLMs).
It also emphasized that, based on match footage of famous professional soccer players and engineers' motion-capture data, Atlas can repeat the same movements in a simulation environment millions of times and learn in about 24 hours skills that athletes acquire over long periods.
Another U.S. business outlet, Bloomberg, reported that Hyundai Motor Group publicly demonstrated Atlas on the global World Cup stage and continued progress in advancing robot technology ahead of factory deployment. Bloomberg viewed the goal as verifying the ability to perform complex and precise tasks while adapting to hard-to-predict environmental changes.
In particular, it said testing Atlas in an outdoor stadium was a process of securing important engineering data for future factory deployment. A stadium's grass presents variables that are almost nonexistent on a concrete lab floor. Through this training, Atlas can boost adaptability and expand to diverse environments.
According to Reuters, Boston Dynamics built a separate wireless communication system into Atlas because Wi-Fi-based links cannot be used in environments packed with tens of thousands of spectators. Tailored to the characteristics of the stadium grass, it also applied a different learning method to achieve more stable movement.
The U.S. marketing magazine Adweek said, "Hyundai Motor Group presented a new global marketing case that combines Robotics technology with brand vision through the World Cup," and added, "Atlas' World Cup performance was the first public demonstration of its capabilities in a real environment and the first case of a Humanoid Robot being integrated into a World Cup match."