FYI: Tesla’s upcoming Optimus humanoid robot is set to revolutionize mundane tasks with higher production anticipated by 2026.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk Shares Exciting Updates on Optimus Humanoid Robot
Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, provided new insights into the development of the company’s highly anticipated humanoid robot, Optimus. Initially unveiled at the company’s Artificial Intelligence Day three years ago, the project aims to automate trivial and monotonous tasks, promising a future where such work might become a thing of the past.
A Brief History of Optimus
Although Tesla is best known for its advancements in AI via the Full Self-Driving (FSD) suite, the Optimus humanoid robot has quickly become one of its most notable projects. However, the timeline for the robot’s development hasn’t proceeded as swiftly as Musk initially predicted. In 2021, Musk claimed units would be operational within Tesla factories by 2022, but that timeline has not been met.
Potential of Optimus
Elon Musk recently elaborated on the potential tasks that Optimus could take on, highlighting its ability to perform dull and repetitive jobs. He stated:
"For the Tesla bot, it’s going to start with work that is boring and repetitive. Basically work that a person would least like to do… Things that I think are very hard about having a useful humanoid robot is ‘Can it navigate through the world without being explicitly trained?’ Without explicit line-by-line instructions. Can you talk to it and say ‘Pick up that bolt, attach it to the car with that wrench.’ It should be able to do that."
Timeline and Production Estimates
Musk shared that Tesla anticipates having "genuinely useful" humanoid robots in low production for internal use by 2025. He is optimistic that by 2026, production levels will be sufficient to offer these robots to other companies.
"Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026," Musk tweeted.
Ongoing Developments
In anticipation of scaling up the Optimus project, Tesla has been expanding its talent pool. The company posted job listings in March seeking field testing experts to fine-tune the capabilities of the humanoid robot.
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By William Kouch, Editor of Automotive.fyi
