Optimus: Tesla’s Humanoid Robot Set to Launch This Year

Back in June, at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting, Elon Musk made an ambitious declaration. He predicted that the future would see at least one humanoid robot per person, estimating that there would be 10 billion humanoid robots populating the Earth in the upcoming years.

Rest assured, Tesla claims to have a significant share in this rapidly evolving industry. According to Musk, the Optimus project could easily reach a $25 trillion market cap. Meanwhile, the Electro Vehicle (EV) production seems to stand at only about $5-7 trillion.

Today, Elon Musk teased Tesla’s most recent creation – humanoid robot Optimus 2.0 on platform X. Musk shared that the robot has undergone significant modifications, referring to it as “something special.” The complete version of the humanoid will be presented to the public eye later this year.

At the moment, Tesla has put the robot prototype through a major hardware revision. After some planned test drives, the company will implement the robots as employees at its factory. Musk reckons that by next year, a few thousand Tesla humanoid robots could be working at his company.

What We Know About the Elon Musk Project So Far

At an AI Day event in 2021, Tesla first disclosed its intentions to step into advanced robotics by showcasing a dancer dressed in a unitard. The humanoid appeared to be a sleek, androgynous robot.

Fast-forward three years, in January 2024, Tesla presented their next creation: Optimus robot, capable of folding the laundry, cleaning and accomplishing other household duties. At first, it seemed like futuristic movies had suddenly become a reality.

However, the project received quite a bit of negative backlash. The critics claimed that the robots were lacking autonomy. Besides, humans themselves operated the robots with remote controls. Overall, the Elon Musk Project did not cause much astonishment.

Back in June, Tesla provided a few updates on Optimus and the accomplishments the humanoid robot has made over the previous 12 months. The company states that Optimus has already undergone three significant design changes. Over the last two years, four revisions were made to the humanoid robot’s hands.

As of now, Tesla’s Fremont factory is already using two Optimus bots to pick cells off the end of the production line and place them in containers.

Autonomous Navigation and Deployment

Musk recently hinted at a few design modifications that will resemble Optimus in its ultimate form. Nonetheless, the robots still require quite a bit of work to be done. Although given that the humanoid robots are already navigating through Tesla’s offices and labs, it might not be too long before the public sees Optimus in its’ prime action. According to the latest update from Musk, a couple of robots are already fully integrated into one of Tesla’s factories.

By the end of 2025, Tesla might begin selling Optimus externally. During the first quarter earnings call by TSLA, Elon shared the robot’s recent achievements. Optimus can easily perform basic factory activities in the lab. Now, closer to the end of this year, the company will begin a limited production and integration process within the original factory itself. However, as Musk stated, these predictions are only estimates.

Musk also revealed at the end of the second quarter that Tesla intends to rent out the Optimus robot before it’s available for sale.

Notably, Musk is now trying to turn Tesla into a hybrid producer with various manufacturing spheres. These include robotics, energy storage, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, and sustainable energy companies. Given these developments the company is entering a new era where it will have to compete with Boston Dynamics, Figure AI and other already well-established humanoid robot makers.

Optimus: Optimistic Projections

At the 2024 annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas, Musk, who described himself as “pathologically optimistic,” stated that Tesla is not only starting a “new chapter” in its history but is also getting ready to write a whole “new book.” It seems that Optimus is one of the primary characters.

Musk withheld specifics about what Optimus can accomplish at Thursday’s shareholder event. He predicted that one day, robots might act like C-3PO and R2-D2 from “Star Wars.”

Musk claimed the robots could be caring for your cleaning and cooking, performing tasks in the factory, or even tutor your kids. Regarding value to shareholders, Musk stated that Optimus might eventually be the driving force behind Tesla’s market valuation reaching $25 trillion.

In an auditorium at the Gigafactory, Musk addressed an audience primarily of adoring fanboys. He declared that Tesla would begin “limited production” of Optimus in 2025 and begin testing humanoid robots in its facilities the following year. He projected that by 2025, the company will have “over 1,000, or a few thousand, Optimus robots working at Tesla.”

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