Boston Dynamics CEO: We are in a scaling evolution
Robert Player, CEO of Boston Dynamics, believes the robotics industry is evolving from its niche stage to its large-scale stage. Player made the comments during a panel discussion at CES 2026, along with other luminaries including Qualcomm’s Nakul Duggal, Google DeepMind’s senior director Carolina Parada, and General Motors’ robot strategy director Mikel Taylor.
“You know, for the 30 years I’ve been working in robotics, it’s been a niche thing, dominated by YouTube videos and prototypes. And I think the interesting evolution that’s happening now is scale,” Player said on stage. “The adoption process has actually started, right?”
Prater noted that Boston Dynamics, which is majority owned by Hyundai, has more than 2,000 robot spot dogs for customers in factory settings.
“We have partner companies, OEMs, large industry providers, and even component providers who want to get into the robotics business, whether it’s building batteries or actuators or sensors, and ultimately that’s what we need to scale this industry,” he said.
