Toyota Is Buying Up Robotics Companies. Could Boston Dynamics Be Next?

In March, the Toyota Research Institute bought up Cambridge-based startup Jaybridge Robotics, and according to Tech Insider, they may be expanding with another famous Massachusetts company: Google's Boston Dynamics, the maker of the Big Dog and Atlas robots. Google has been talking about selling the Waltham-based Boston Dynamics, for a couple of months now, with companies such as Toyota Research Institute and Amazon.com Around that time, TRI, which seeks to create a car that is incapable of crashing, announced a deal to acquire Jaybridge, a 16-member software engineering company, in order to add more expertise to creating "autonomous vehicle products." Tech Insider noted that the deal hasn't been finalized, but that "the ink is nearly dry." On the other side of the alleged deal is Google, which acquired the Waltham-based company in 2013.