Elon Musk, the tech tycoon, has unveiled the latest prototype of a humanoid robot being created by his Tesla electric car company.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk introduced Optimus Unit 1, an autonomous humanoid robot that can be mass-produced, during Tesla AI Day 2022. The project started in April 2022, which means that the development only took six months in the making.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled a prototype of its humanoid robot ‘Optimus’ on Friday, saying that the electric vehicle manufacturer will be able to produce millions and sell them for less than $20,000 – less than a third of the price of a Model Y.
Musk claimed Tesla would be ready to take orders for the robot in three to five years and highlighted a decade-long effort to develop the product, the most precise vision he has presented to date on a business he has suggested might be larger than Tesla’s EV income.
Tesla’s ambition to design and produce mass-market robots that will also be tested by operating in its factories distinguishes it from other manufacturers who have experimented with humanoid robots.
The much anticipated unveiling of prototype robots at Tesla’s office in Palo Alto, California, was also part of Musk’s drive to position Tesla as a pioneer in sectors such as artificial intelligence, rather than merely a firm that builds “awesome cars.”
On Friday, an experimental test robot that Tesla says it developed in February walked out to greet the gathering, and Tesla displayed a video showing it performing simple duties like watering plants, carrying boxes, and lifting metal bars at a production station at the company’s California plant.
However, a more simplified version of the current one, which Musk said was closer to what he planned to put into production, had to be rolled out on a platform and did a slow wave to the crowd. Musk dubbed it Optimus and said that it will be able to walk in a matter of weeks.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done to refine Optimus and prove it,” Musk said, adding later, “I think Optimus is going to be incredible in five or 10 years, like mind blowing.”
He claims that existing humanoid robots “lack a brain” and the ability to solve issues on their own. In contrast, Optimus, he claimed, would be a “very capable robot” that Tesla hoped to mass-produce in the millions.
Other automakers, such as Toyota Motor and Honda Motor, have created humanoid robot prototypes capable of performing complex tasks such as basketball shooting, while production robots from ABB and others are a mainstay of auto manufacturing.
However, Tesla is the only company pushing the market opportunity for a mass-market robot that might also be utilised in manufacturing.
Tesla-designed components will be used in the next-generation Tesla bot, including a 2.3-kWh battery pack carried in its torso, a chip system, and actuators to operate its limbs. The robot is designed to be 73 kg in weight.
Tesla engineers, who were all dressed in black T-shirts with an image of metallic robotic hands making a heart shape, discussed how they designed the robot’s features, including how the fingers move, with an emphasis on lowering production costs.
“We are trying to follow the goal of fastest path to a useful robot that can be made at volume,” Musk said.
Tesla, Musk said, is changing the words of a well-known mission statement that has been part of its appeal to investors and climate activists by vowing to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”
Musk stated, “Optimus is not exactly in line with advancing sustainable energy.” “I think the mission broadens somewhat with the arrival of Optimus to — I don’t know: making the future amazing.”
Musk portrayed the gathering as a recruiting event, with the engineers on stage catering to a technical audience. They described how Tesla created robot hands and how they used crash simulator technology to evaluate the robot’s ability to fall on its face without breaking.
Musk, who has previously cautioned against the dangers of artificial intelligence, stated that the widespread deployment of robots had the ability to “change civilization” and produce “a future of abundance, a future without poverty.” However, he stated that he believed it was critical that Tesla shareholders play a role in assessing the company’s efforts.
“If I go crazy, you can fire me,” Musk said. “This is important.”
Tesla’s full self-driving capabilities, Musk said on Friday, will be “technically” ready for worldwide rollout by the end of 2022, but regulations will remain a barrier.
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