Boston Dynamics' New WildCat Robot Can Run You Down At 16mph

Boston Dynamics, not content to build a Terminator that can carjack you or a silent bulletproof robot horse that can chuck cinderblocks with its face, has built WildCat. It’s like their Cheetah robot, except completely wireless. That’s… that’s just great, guys.

Possibly intended as a faithful companion for when Atlas rides Big Dog while hunting down humans, the WildCat is essentially applying animal movement to robotics. As such, it’s absolutely fascinating, because you can really see the kinetics of animals in the WildCat as it moves. Then you remember that this thing can run sixteen miles an hour until the gas runs out, and you can’t.

Granted, that massive whining motor will be a dead giveaway when WildCat comes bounding over the rise, gleeful for the blood of humans. But, as we mentioned, Boston Dynamics’ next job order from DARPA is essentially to figure out how to make these things absolutely silent and resistant to small arms fire. You know, because nobody in the military or at Boston Dynamics has ever seen a Terminator movie.

So, while we’re waiting to die, we might as well GIF this thing:

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