So Is This Robot Dog With Wheels for Feet an ATV or Not?

I honestly can't decide.

Photo by: YouTube

By: Jonathon Klein

Jan 13, 2025 at 9:26am ET

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Listen, the internet is a weird place. But it's a mirror of the weird place we've created around us.

Everywhere you look, there are oddities springing up from all corners of the globe, including AI-robot police balls, H2R-powered drone helicopters, 217-MPH cameras, and more. And with AI and robotics becoming more mainstream, or at least AI-controlled by humans and in most cases the humans doing the controlling outright, we're getting to a weird place where anything can be a powersport vehicle so long as you believe it can.

That's why when I came across this video of what appears similar to one of those Boston Dynamics robot dogs—you know, the ones that the military and YouTubers love to play with—with wheels for feet, I wondered aloud, "Is this now an ATV?"

What do you think?

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Now before you say, "Jonathon, lay off the drugs," or rather, "Jonathon, get back on the drugs," the thumbnail of the video above is of a dude riding said robot dog with wheeled feet. And he's riding said contraption off-road. That combination would certainly, in my eyes, point to it being an ATV. Maybe not a traditional ATV as Polaris, Kawasaki, Honda, or Can-Am would call it, but an ATV no doubt.

But I can also see the other side of the coin, as in this is absolutely not an ATV. I mean, it's a robot dog. You don't have a throttle, handlebars, or brakes. You just let it do its thing and it takes you wherever. Maybe it's closer to a horse than an ATV in that respect?

Still, it has four wheels. Its legs are essentially its suspension system. And there's room for a rider to embrace the beauty of the natural world around them. That, to me, sounds like an ATV. I'm just not sure it is, nor am I looking forward to our robot future that definitely won't lead to Judgement Day...