Why Hyundai’s Atlas has four fingers — and Tesla’s Optimus has five

What happened: Hyundai's Boston Dynamics chose a four-finger hand for its electric Atlas humanoid, while Tesla's Optimus keeps five fingers. The designs reflect different bets on factory work versus general-purpose use. Key numbers: Atlas hand has 13 degrees of freedom; Optimus has 22. Hyundai targets Atlas factory deployment and volume production by 2028. Why it matters: Analysts and researchers say Atlas' simpler modular design may scale to volume production more smoothly, while Optimus' cable-driven hand poses assembly bottlenecks but could serve unstructured settings like homes.

Hyundai's Boston Dynamics chose a four-finger hand for its electric Atlas humanoid, while Tesla's Optimus keeps five fingers. The designs reflect different bets on factory work versus general-purpose use.

Analysts and researchers say Atlas' simpler modular design may scale to volume production more smoothly, while Optimus' cable-driven hand poses assembly bottlenecks but could serve unstructured settings like homes.