spotmini Boston Dynamics’s robot only looks like it thinks for itself. The SpotMini is guided back to the human controlling it. On assignment for The New York Times, I was granted the extremely rare access to Boston Dynamics, and allowed to make this short video of SpotMini. SpotMini is soon to be Boston Dynamics first commercially available robot. Moving like a large dog, knees bent and hips swaying, the robot walked across a parking lot and into a rain puddle. There, it danced a jig, splashing water across the asphalt. Then it turned and trotted toward a brick building, climbing over a curb and stopping within inches of a floor-length window. Pausing for several seconds, it seemed to eye its own reflection in the glass. The scene was mesmerizing — so mesmerizing, it was easy to forget that a woman was guiding the four-legged machine from across the parking lot, a joystick in her hands and a laptop computer strapped to her waist.