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Boston Dynamics is now training Atlas on an active automotive assembly campus. On Sept. 21, 2025, the company announced the opening of the Robotics Metaplant Application Center (RMAC) inside Hyundai Motor Group's Metaplant America in Bryan County, Georgia, near Savannah. The center is designed to put Atlas through real-world factory tasks instead of laboratory routines, starting with logistics and the sequencing of automotive parts for assembly lines. Hyundai Motor Group has said it intends to scale the program quickly, with a target of deploying 25,000 Atlas units across Hyundai and Kia plants worldwide in the coming years.
The RMAC is embedded in Hyundai's Metaplant America, a high-volume EV factory that has become a test site for advanced manufacturing. Atlas robots are being trained in conditions that mirror the actual rhythm of a live production line: pulling parts from storage, preparing them for the assembly area, and placing them in the correct order for downstream work.
Boston Dynamics describes the initial work as logistics and sequencing — jobs that are repetitive but demand spatial awareness, precise hand-eye coordination, and the ability to operate around people and machinery. The robots are expected to move into heavier tasks as the program matures, including lifting heavy loads and other physically demanding jobs that are hard on human workers.
Hyundai's deployment target is not modest. The automaker says it plans to put 25,000 Atlas units in plants run by Hyundai Motor and Kia around the world. The first wave of that rollout is expected to focus on the logistics roles now being tested in Georgia.
Boston Dynamics also intends to build a new production facility in the U.S. capable of manufacturing 30,000 robots annually. That would put Atlas on track to become one of the largest planned humanoid robot fleets in industrial history. By 2030, the company says, Atlas will expand into component assembly, taking on repetitive and ergonomically stressful work on a broader scale.
Training a humanoid robot inside a working factory offers advantages that a stand-alone lab cannot replicate. Atlas has to operate in a live building with real plant layouts, moving material-handling systems, and the irregular timing of a functioning production line.
That exposure is central to the "physical AI" strategy that Boston Dynamics and Hyundai have promoted: robots that learn by doing in the physical world, not just from simulated data. It also gives Boston Dynamics a reliable stream of production-grade information that can be used to refine software and behavior across the entire Atlas fleet.
The current phase of the RMAC is already operational at the Metaplant. Boston Dynamics says it is preparing to move RMAC operations into a new building roughly 10 times the current size.
The expanded footprint would allow Hyundai to test Atlas on a wider range of tasks without disrupting normal production. It would also provide room for more robots, more sensors, and more opportunities for data collection during the next phase of training.
Hyundai Motor Group took control of Boston Dynamics in 2021, and the Georgia plant has become a visible checkpoint for that investment. Metaplant America is Hyundai's first dedicated EV manufacturing site in the U.S., and putting Atlas inside that plant signals a shift from stage demonstrations to industrial deployment.
The RMAC launch follows the first major public showcase of Atlas during Hyundai Motor Group's media day presentation at CES 2026. At that event, the group laid out its broader AI robotics strategy, tying humanoid robots, factory automation, and future mobility into one long-term plan.
Boston Dynamics executives are framing the project in ambitious terms. Zack Jackowski, the company's chief product and technology officer, said in a statement that the company is "pioneering physical AI at enterprise scale" together with Hyundai Motor Group.
That phrase captures the core logic of the program: humanoid robots need real-world, high-volume environments to move from novelty to economic usefulness. A car plant offers exactly that, in a controlled but demanding setting where automating material movement can be measured in cost savings, speed, and safety.
The automotive floor is only the entry point. Boston Dynamics says it is already in discussions with existing Spot and Stretch customers in manufacturing, aerospace, semiconductors, logistics, food and beverage, and life sciences. The goal is to scale data collection and continue training Atlas through 2027.
Each new environment adds training data that helps Atlas adapt without years of task-specific programming. For a company that started with quadruped robots, the pivot toward multi-purpose humanoid work is a strategic bet on the data economy of robotics.
Boston Dynamics is entering a crowded humanoid robot race that includes several well-funded competitors. The difference at Hyundai is access: an automaker-owned robotics company running its humanoids inside one of its own factories.
That integration could give Hyundai and Boston Dynamics a speed advantage in solving the engineering, safety, and cost challenges that have kept humanoid robots mostly on the sidelines of factory work. It also raises questions about how quickly industrial jobs will be reshaped and how worker training will be managed as robots are deployed in larger numbers.
The RMAC is best understood as a proof-of-concept for humanoid robots in mainstream car production. Hyundai's medium-term target of 25,000 units would require more than a few robots doing demonstrations; it would mean integrating Atlas into the daily flow of some of the largest auto plants in the world.
The company has not said exactly when those rollout decisions will be made or which plants get priority. But the Georgia center is clearly intended to produce the operating playbook that Hyundai and Boston Dynamics will need before scaling Atlas beyond the pilot phase.
Boston Dynamics and Hyundai are moving on a compressed timeline: train in Georgia, expand the facility, deploy across Hyundai and Kia plants, and eventually push Atlas outside the automotive industry. If the program works as planned, Atlas could become the first humanoid robot to scale beyond pilot projects into routine industrial use. If it stumbles, the RMAC will still be a valuable testbed for figuring out what it really takes to make humanoid robots work in a modern factory.
