Footage of Humanoid Robots Failing at Parkour is Both Disturbing and Hilarious

Boston Dynamics, the engineering and robotics company notorious for their creepy dancing humanoid robots, has recently released footage of their latest Terminator-like Atlas droid demonstrating whole-body athletics in an obstacle course. But science and technology doesn't always go according to plan—turns out there's a lot of trial and error involved in designing our future robot overlords. Who knew?

In addition to Boston Dynamics' video showing off the disturbing accuracy of their machines, behind-the-scenes blooper footage of the Atlas robots epically failing at parkour has gone viral and the internet has mixed feelings. While many are somewhat comforted and even delighted by their imperfections, others are suspicious that the release of the fail video was an effort to humanize the robots. Personally, I'd like to see the Atlas try the milk crate challenge.

1
So much for 'robot overlords'

Via General Watermelon
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2

My cat trying to jump from the table to the counter: pic.twitter.com/GlZBuXtE7b
— FoxTeeth (@FuzzelFoxAD) August 17, 2021

Via @FuzzelFoxAD
3

Via @ItsaMeDio
4

Don't be a robophobic,
I for one welcome our new robot overlords.
— Sean Lannon (@ResistNormal) August 17, 2021

Via @ResistNormal
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5
They mastered it, eventually

Via Boston Dynamics