Elon Musk Shows Off Working Optimus 'Tesla Bot' Prototype
Elon Musk on Friday delivered on the most anticipated announcement from Tesla's AI Day, revealing a working prototype of the Optimus humanoid robot, also known as the Tesla Bot.
The technology behind the robot also powers the full self-driving (FSD) capabilities inside Tesla vehicles, though Musk didn't provide too much of an update on that last night. The event did, however, serve to further Tesla's goal of being perceived as more than a car company. "We are arguably the leader in real-world AI," Musk told attendees.
The robot reveal opened the show. A prototype walked out from behind two doors, revealing a silver body covered with intricate wiring. The crowd, largely made up of engineers and potential recruits for the company, cheered as the robot waved. It then made a “raise the roof” motion with both hands before walking back through the doors.
That was it.
“This is literally the first time the robot has operated without a tether, on stage tonight,” Musk said. He and the team onstage who built it seemed visibly nervous to debut the bot publicly. “The robot can do a lot more than we showed you, we just didn’t want it to fall on its face.” He then played a video of the robot doing things like moving boxes and watering plants in an office.
Musk addressed the fact that the robot was clearly less advanced than some others out there, like this dancing trio from Boston Dynamics.
“You’ll see other humanoid robots but the difference is that they’re missing a brain,” said Musk. “They’re also very expensive and made at low volume. The Optimus is a very capable robot made at high volume and expected to cost less than $20,000.” (Boston Dynamics' robot dog costs $74,500.)
He used the prototype's shortcomings as a recruiting
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