Hyundai Motor Company showcased its future robotics technology at the 2026 FIFA World Cup by featuring Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot, Atlas, in a special performance.

Hyundai Motor announced that on July 5 (local time), during the halftime of the Round of 16 match between Brazil and Norway held at the New Jersey Stadium in the United States, Atlas successfully demonstrated a performance of delivering the match ball to the referee.

Emerging from the player tunnel, Atlas heated up the stadium atmosphere by performing a series of signature celebrations from world-class football stars, including Harry Kane, Erling Haaland, Matheus Cunha, and Son Heung-min, before delivering the ball to the referee to signal the start of the second half.


The Atlas model featured in this performance is a next-generation all-electric development model that was first unveiled at CES 2026 in January. This marked its first-ever demonstration of movements in front of a live audience.

In particular, the robot proved the potential applications of Hyundai Motor Group's future robotics technology by stably performing complex movements in the unpredictable environment of a stadium.

By combining retargeting technology—which adapts human movements to the robot's physical structure—with reinforcement learning based on thousands of simulations and whole-body control technology that allows all joints to react as a single system, the robot was able to achieve natural and balanced movements.

Hyundai Motor explained that this performance demonstrated that robotics can be utilized in various fields beyond industrial sites, including sports and entertainment.

(Photo: Courtesy of Hyundai Motor·Kia, Yonhap News)