If Kia is hoping we’ll lovingly embrace our future robot overlords, it’s off to a great start with the teasers for its Super Bowl commercial. A pair of them gives us our first video of the robotic dog introduced in Kia’s announcement last week that said it’d air its 13th Super Bowl commercial this year. And guys, the dog is downright adorable – and a bit dystopian if you stare into its camera-eyes for too long.
Bonnie Taylor’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” is playing over the robotic hisses of the dog’s movements as it notices something off-screen, which is revealed to be an all-electric Kia EV6 in the Twitter teaser below. Robo Dog’s camera-eyes grow wide with excitement looking at the crossover as Kia tells us to “Get ready to fall for it.” We believe Kia is talking about the EV6, but the dog is quite cute. The $299 price tag next to the pup is suspicious, too.
We're charged to 100 for the game. Let's goooooo.#LiveFullyCharged #RoboDog #KiaEV6 #MovementThatInspires pic.twitter.com/u7vKmyLD7g
— Kia America (@Kia) February 1, 2022
Kia falls under the umbrella of Hyundai Motor Group that purchased Boston Dynamics, the robotics firm, in late 2020. There is some overlap between the future of robotics and autonomous vehicles, but HMG did say it’d like to build humanoid robots in the future. And at CES earlier this year, the company teased its vision of the future where robots would assist humans in day-to-day life. What exactly are you trying to sell us, Kia?
The commercial coincides with Kia partnering with the Petfinder Foundation charity to help shelter animals find loving homes. The company said we should exact more details about the project ahead of the Super Bowl. We know Robo Dog will star alongside the Kia EV6 in the ad, which will be available in several configurations when it goes on sale, starting at $42,115, including the $1,215 destination charge.
