See The First Look At Tesla’s Horrifying New Humanoid Robot
Elon Musk unveiled the new Tesla humanoid robot, the Tesla Bot, and it could be a window into the future.
It turns out that movies like iRobot were only slightly ahead of their time. The future has finally arrived with the news that Tesla’s new robot, Tesla Bot, will release in a few short years. And, if everything goes as planned, the humanoid robots will be available for individual purchase.
Elon Musk revealed the new Tesla Bot late last week at Tesla AI Day 2022. Its code name is Optimus, and it showed off its very human-like movements to the crowd. Musk hopes to have Optimus ready for sale by 2027, to the tune of $20,000.
During the AI showcase, the team at Tesla showed off two humanoid prototypes. Optimus is the only one who can walk at the moment, though its gait remains a little unsteady. They wheeled the second Tesla Bot out in a chair but showed off some of its impressive movements from a seated position.
According to CNET, Musk hopes to leverage Tesla’s existing manufacturing facilities to build millions of Tesla Bots. This goal is a lofty one, particularly given that they developed Optimus in only eight short months. There are still quite a few details to sort out.
Musk plans to incorporate the Tesla Bots into his existing factory production lines to start. He said he’ll start Optimus off with smaller tasks, such as carrying parts to different conventional robots. But, he anticipates that “the number of situations where Optimus is useful will grow exponentially.”
And Musk was quite vocal about news of a possible future co-inhabited with robots. He gushed that it would be a “future of abundance, a future where there is no poverty, a future where you can have whatever you want in terms of products and services. It really is a fundamental transformation of civilization as we know it.”
Those are high expectations to task the engineers working on Tesla Bots with. The question is, can they deliver? In reality, the base technology is already well-developed.
The Tesla Bots run on the same AI software used in the Tesla autonomous vehicles (FSD). Since engineers have been working on teaching this software to adapt to real-life scenarios, they have a leg up on competitors like Boston Dynamics. This “education” is likely why Optimus will initially work with other robots under strictly monitored conditions.
As the Tesla Bots learn to adapt and evolve to real-world situations, it raises significant concern. Can robots become fully autonomous? After all, countless Hollywood movies have pre-programmed us with this possibility.
According to Musk, they will add a few safety measures to prevent such an occurrence. One is an external safety measure that will allow humans to stop any movement. The second is an override mechanism that cannot get tapped into via the internet.
These features will certainly provide some comfort to skeptical consumers. And with Tesla’s current production capabilities, they stand a strong chance of beating Boston Dynamics (and other manufacturers to the market). So that’s good news to anyone willing to splurge on their own personal robot!
