Hyundai presents a car with robotic legs at CES

Hyundai Elevator Concept is more than a rescue vehicle: it is the multifunctional car concept of the future

It may sound strange, very strange, but the Hyundai Elevator Concept is a vehicle capable of driving on the road like any car, but also of walking, overcoming obstacles and, even climbing.

And this vehicle with robotic legs, presented at the Consumer Electronics Show, better known by its acronym and the location of the fair, CES in Las Vegas, Nevada (USA), has turned other technological innovations, such as the virtual reality glasses by Audi, the new virtual assistant from BMW or the forecast by Mercedes-Benz about the mobility of the future, into mere anecdotes next to this prototype with such spectacular capabilities.

A robot with the qualities of a vertebrate animal

Far from being just a prototype, this rescue vehicle opens up important possibilities for the mobility of the future.

As we mentioned, the Hyundai Elevator Concept moves on its four wheels like any car. It is also a 100% electric car, which makes clear that, for the Korean firm, the fuel of the future, even for vehicles with the most complex tasks, will rely on electric power as its energy source.

But where the traditional car reaches its limit, the qualities of the latest-generation robots appear, those capable of moving using their robotic legs, which is why the Hyundai Elevator Concept deploys its mechanical limbs to walk. To do so, it has learned from the movement of certain vertebrate animals.

This walking car can therefore reach places that a wheeled vehicle could not. Moreover, despite encountering uneven ground, irregular surfaces or even walls, it is able to move over them, if necessary even climbing walls up to more than 1.5 metres high.

The legs, with motors that do not allow backward movement, lock in place in case of a risk of reversing or losing balance, so the Elevator stabilises itself on practically any surface. All of this while transporting people inside without them suffering the mishaps of the terrain that this Hyundai rescue vehicle can and does manage to get past.

Future cars with robotic legs?

This prototype likewise opens the door to a generation of vehicles capable of driving on the road and adapting to traffic conditions. And we are not necessarily referring to rescuing accident victims, but to the idea that these cars with legs could drive on our roads and, once a parking space is found, park by deploying their robotic legs, instead of manoeuvring and moving only on wheels.

Going further, it may sound surreal, but we could come across cars that dodge potholes or obstacles on the road using their legs. We could also see traffic jams or tailbacks where the cars of the future, instead of driving, walk.

What is clear among the CES novelties is that the limit of these gadgets is set by budgets, and that wherever there is a need, human ingenuity ends up finding, if not the solution, a way to