Toyota Set To Acquire Robotics Division From Google

Google is in talks with the Toyota Research Institute to sell its robotics division Boston Dynamics according to Tech Insider but a price for the deal has not yet been disclosed.

Tensions between Google and Boston Dynamics have been brewing since 2014, but a video released by Boston Dynamics in February of its humanoid robot, Atlas, was the tipping point for the separation,

The Toyota Research Institute was announced in November 2015 and began hiring in January. It was established to conduct artificial intelligence and robotics research. A former employee of Boston Dynamics referred to Toyota's pending purchase of Boston Dynamics as a "friendly buyout," considering it has strong ties to the robotics company. 

Gill Pratt, CEO of the Toyota Research Institute, worked with Marc Raibert, founder and CEO of Boston Dynamics, at MIT's leg lab — a lab that builds and studies legged robots that Raibert founded in 1986. Pratt took over the lab in 1992 after Raibert left the university to build Boston Dynamics.

Raibert still runs Boston Dynamics under Google.

Several Google robotics employees have also left the company to work at the Toyota Research Institute recently.

James Kuffner, the co-founder of Google's robotics division, left the company in January to join the Toyota Research Institute. Joseph Bondaryk, the operation manager for Boston Dynamics under Google, also joined the Toyota Research Institute in January.

Source: Tech Insider