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Boston Dynamics' robot dog takes an 'evening stroll' in Canada

The Spot robot was doing 'routing mobility tests' in Northern Ontario when a passer-by saw it.

Marc Raibert, Founder & CEO, Boston Dynamics, speaks on "Welcome to the future of mobile robots" and demonstrate their capability onstage with Spot, one of them at Center Stage of Web Summit in Altice Arena on November 07, 2019 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Horacio Villalobos via Getty Images)

Last week a lot of people got their first taste of an in-the-wild encounter between organic human life and one of Boston Dynamics’ advanced robots. In Northern Ontario, Canada @bloodtear noticed the Spot robot walking down the street and had an encounter that wouldn’t have been odd if it had been with a real dog instead of a robot copy.

After their brief interaction flashed across social media and made a few headlines, Boston Dynamics issued a statement about the interaction. According to the company, the robot was on an “evening stroll” with a handler who was “conducting routine mobility tests,” and Nathan explained in other tweets that the operator was following behind with a remote control We’re still waiting to see more real-world applications for the company’s various robotic ventures, but now that they’re on sale, you can expect to see more people bumping into these devices going forward.