A woman has been filmed taking one of Boston Dynamics' $75,000 robot dogs for a walk down a street in Florida, showcasing some of the incredible - and slightly unnerving - skills that it possesses.
The dog - if you can really call it that - is called Scrappy, and ones exactly like it have previously been used in space testing facilities and crime scenes, but this one has recently been seen trotting down the beachfront for a lovely, and almost normal, dog walk.
During that walk, the automaton animal showed off a variety of skills that other non-robotic dogs possess, including sitting down, and coming to heel when commanded, as well as navigating the usual obstacles and people that you might encounter on a dog walk.
The robot recently became available to the public - for that previously mentioned large fee - so they can be owned by private citizens as pets.
Imagine that, a dog that never dies, never does anything you don't want it to, and is perfectly suited to those who suffer from allergies.
Of course, there is the catch that it has no soul, no agency of it's own, and it's not exactly cuddly, is it?
Scrappy has a YouTube channel on which videos are shared of the adventures that it goes on with its owner.
The description of that channel reads: "I'm just a robot dog learning the world I was booted up in."
Aren't we all, Scrappy?
In one of the clips, Scrappy can be seen walking along the beach front lead by its owner holding the leash, and then in another she commands Scrappy to sit down, and it promptly does.
The robots became available to the public in June 2020, but have been developed by Boston Dynamics since 2015.
The original dog, Spot, can go inside people's houses and map surroundings to navigate about, as well as performing some extra nifty tricks like opening doors and heading up stairs.
Whether it has learned to drink straight out of the toilet or tear things to shreds yet is not clear.
Spot was originally designed to enter environments that would be hostile to biological creatures such as disaster zones and construction sites, amongst others.
Spot has also been seen at the SpaceX testing facility in Texas, suggesting that billionaire Elon Musk might be one of the people weighing up a robot pal for his existing dogs.
Well, what's $75,000 when you're one of the richest men on the planet?
Featured Image Credit: Scrappy The Robot Dog/YouTubeTopics: Science, US News, Weird, Animals, Dogs