I looked up the quote: "Raibert said that for the outdoor scenes, a human provides general steering via radio while the robot uses its stereo and LIDAR sensors to adjust to terrain variations. ATLAS also does its own balance and motion control. "
This kind of navigation level steering is an easy problem compared to stable walking over rough terrain and recovery from kicks and shoves.
Maybe, but the videos (and surrounding media) were presented in a way which implied the robot was autonomous, finding it's own path through the terrain.
It may not be intentionally misleading, but still misleading.
Compare it to that Watson/Carrie Fischer commercial, where Watson is presented as being able to carry on a conversation. It can't really do that, but that's also misleading.
This kind of navigation level steering is an easy problem compared to stable walking over rough terrain and recovery from kicks and shoves.