Hyundai Tiger X-1 concept is a smaller, autonomous walking vehicle
Cars
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Wow.
If I had a nickel for every time that Hyundai they'd used a weird walking car concept.
Well, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice right?
The Korean automaker turned mobility company.
Just pull the wraps off of its new transforming intelligent ground excursion, robotic experiment, or.
Tiger x one for short.
Its newest vision for the multi legged robot car of the future, maybe not at the scale you might be expecting.
Now, some of you may remember Hyundai's last walking car concept, the elevate from CES two thousand and nineteen.
It's going to be linked down below but if you missed it, don't worry.
I'll catch the rest of you up.
Now, like the elevate, Tiger x one features, four robotic legs, with fixed points of articulation and rotation.
All of which, connect to a symmetrical body, with no obvious front or rear.
At the end of each leg, is a motorized wheel, and how those parts work together, is where things get interesting.
Okay so when the road is smooth Tiger X1 is able to fold up its legs and move omni directionally on its wheels.
This is it's most efficient and fastest mode.
Though even in this configuration it's got a lot more articulation at each corner than your average conventionally suspended vehicle.
Now when the road gets rough for a block or maybe it's just time to leave the trail all together, The Tiger can extend its legs to enter a walking mode like some sort of weird crab car hybrid.
It can even do a combination of walking and rolling, for example, lifting a leg and then rolling forward to clear a tall ledge, range and operational time our big old question marks at this point because Hyundai's just not really focused on that right now.
They really just want to nail down the whole walking and rolling part of.
The Tiger concept .Now unlike the elevate which was designed with a four seat passenger compartment in mind, Tiger x one is designed to be completely autonomous no humans on board plus is a small boy.
We're talking carry on luggage small at this point in his development, which is a little bit disappointing because frankly, I just want to run the damn thing.
However Hyundai sees the compact size as benefit, ideal for putting the next one on these sorts of jobs that you may not need or even want, to send a human being.
For example, its modular design makes it ideal for unmanned scientific exploration of extreme environments or Payload delivery to remote and inaccessible locations, or even emergency services like delivering medicine or supplies to a disaster site or forest fire.
Hyundai even imagined the excellence mission stretching to the extraterrestrial, showcasing the concept exploring the surface of the moon or other planets in this debut video, which Let me explains why it kinda looks like the Mars rovers weird Kevin.
The small scale also means that Tiger X1 could conceivably be delivered to and extracted from locations via an unmanned quadcopter drone.
That drone could even return periodically to recharge little box batteries.
Though this whole part of the concept is the most conceptual part to me, it's a little less believable even than seeing the next one on the moon.
Even Hyundai admits that the sort of drone technology we need for this just isn't available today.
Another neat tidbit is that Tiger x ones chassis, its legs, its wheels, even its tires are designed with additive manufacturing in mind.
That's 3d printing for those of us who talk like regular people.
3d printing means that Hyundai's New Horizons studios, the people who are in charge of developing Tiger x one and their partner Autodesk can prototype and iterate quickly and create strong, lightweight parts.
The non pneumatic tires also get around some of the problems that plague are filled rubber like punctures sensitivity to temperature or total lack of atmosphere.
Remember this thing is designed to eventually go into space.
Without people on board pneumatic comfort just isn't really a high priority.
Tiger X1 may be small today but Hyundai and its new horizons studios are open to scaling up to design depending on the needs of their eventual customers.
Plus the two teams think that the technology in Tiger X1 is big business The company recently invested $1.1 billion in acquiring a stake in Boston dynamics.
A company known for its own walking, and sometimes even dancing robots.
Though tiger X one predates that acquisition It's a completely in-house homegrown project.
New Horizons is also at work on a variety of other walkable technologies for the future, including exoskeletons for first responders or robotic legs for the elderly or disabled, or even Robo wheelie leg taxis that can reposition their chassis for wheelchair access without the need for a ramp.
Your next palisade may not be able to crab off.
But this technology is making its way into our lives one way or another.
What do you think?
Are you ready for the walking robo car of the future?
Or is this just more sci fi concept vaporware?
Or better yet, who do you think would win in a fight between the tiger x one and Boston Dynamics spot Robo Dog Let us know in the comments below and make sure that you're subscribed.
You won't want to miss whatever other weird transport tech they'll think of next
