Boston Dynamics is pulling another trick out of its proverbial hat by having its Spot robots recreate the video for The Rolling Stones’ 1981 hit song “Start Me Up.”
The video begins with a single quadrupedal robot dog mimicking Mick Jagger’s dance moves. As the video progresses, more robots join in – acting as Jagger’s band members, to finish out the visual.
It’s apparent that Boston Dynamics is making a concentrated effort to make its robots seem fun, particularly after the company sparked outrage in April of this year when a video of a robot dog exiting a New York City building with New York police officers went viral. In this incident, the 70-pound machine, called the Digidog was on standby during a domestic disturbance.
The viral clip led the NYPD to pull the plug on the project and terminate its lease with Boston Dynamics. The department acquired 500 models of the robot in August 2020 to test during the year, with officials arguing that with its multiple cameras, lights, and sensors, it was equipped to help in certain situations.
That same month, images surfaced of the dog-like robot being deployed by the French army to take part in military exercises alongside soldiers-in-training. The French army is reportedly thinking about using Spot for reconnaissance in combat operations.
Check out the creepy video of the dancing robot dogs up top.
