Hyundai Steps Up U.S. Robot Lobbying as China Race Heats Up

Ah, marvellous. Just when you thought the robot revolution would be decided by who builds the cleverest machine, Hyundai has decided it will be decided by who files the cleverest paperwork. The conglomerate is 'increasing lobbying' on U.S. federal robotics policy, with its sights set on the FY2027 NDAA, the National Commission on Robotics Act, the American Security Robotics Act, and the Humanoid ROBOT Act — four splendid acronyms that will terrify the Chinese Politburo far more than any actual robot could. And Boston Dynamics, the company whose products have spent a decade making humans feel deeply inadequate, has weighed in to say that establishing a National Commission on Robotics would be 'an important first step' toward a U.S. national robotics strategy. A commission. The first step. Hold that thought.

Because nothing says 'we are winning the race against China' like setting up a committee to think about thinking about robots. The National Commission on Robotics Act would presumably create a body that will hold hearings, commission studies, and produce a strategy sometime around the Fourth Industrial Revolution's golden jubilee. The American Security Robotics Act and the Humanoid ROBOT Act — and yes, that is apparently the actual name, because the drafters clearly spent all their creativity on the acronym — will ensure that whatever the strategy is, it is delivered with maximum bureaucracy and minimum urgency.

Meanwhile, China is presumably not establishing a National Commission on Reaching The Moon, nor a Humanoid MOON Act; it is simply building things. Hyundai's lobbyists are betting that Washington's response to an accelerating adversary is more subcommittees, more reports, and more 'first steps'. This is how great powers lose technological races: not with a bang, but with a quorum. Marvellous.