Quick Take:
- Hyundai is sending spot robots to the metaverse in a giant step towards Metamobility.
- The South Korean auto manufacturer wants to bring robots to the metaverse to boost user engagement in the virtual world.
- The automobile company’s President, Chang Song thinks this will allow people to move freely between the real world and the metaverse.
Hyundai is showcasing its plans to send Boston Dynamic’s spot robot to the metaverse during this Week’s CES presentation. The automobile manufacturer’s metaverse vision involves creating a link between the real world and virtual reality, thereby enabling people to move freely between both universes.
If the South Korean automotive giant achieves its goal, then it would be a giant step towards making Metamobility a reality.
Hyundai Motor Group President, Chang Song thinks sending robots to the metaverse, which people can use to interact with each other through virtual reality, could make them an extension of our own senses.
“The idea behind Metamobility is that space, time and distance will all become irrelevant. By connecting robots to the metaverse, we will be able to move freely between both the real world and virtual reality. Going one step further from the immersive ‘be there’ proxy experience that the metaverse provides, robots will become an extension of our own physical senses, allowing us to reshape and enrich our daily lives with Metamobility,” Song said during a CES presentation, as quoted by TechCrunch.
However, as promising as this sounds, there are still doubts about how realistic it could be, given what we have already achieved in terms of real-world applications of virtual reality. Toyota’s T-HR3 system is the closest example for a use case scenario where remote teleoperations have been used to control a manufacturing robot.
Nonetheless, Hyundai said that Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing could be used for remote-controlled tasks, which makes it plausible to imagine a similar system applied in real practice.
But the company also cautions about current applications and what would be required to achieve Metamobility, adding that some applications are further behind.
In the press release, Hyundai uses an affectionate example of feeding and hugging their pet in the metaverse.
“When a user accesses a digital twin of their home in the metaverse while away from their physical home, they will be able to feed and hug a pet in Korea through the use of an avatar robot. This will allow users to enjoy real-world experiences through VR.”
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