Elon Musk debuts Tesla robot, Optimus, calling it a ‘fundamental transformation’

SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla unveiled a prototype of its humanoid robot Friday, dubbed Optimus, launching a bet on artificial intelligence that aims to reshape the future of physical work.

The robot walked onstage and demonstrated its range of motion, waving hello and pumping its arms in the air. Tesla said the robot was running on its Full Self-Driving computer. The company launched into a highly technical presentation about its efforts to develop and train the robot, from its first steps to more advanced functions such as one it called “pelvis unlock” to letting its arms sway.

“This is literally the first time the robot was operated without [a tether] onstage tonight,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, as Tesla showed videos of it picking up objects and watering plants. “We didn’t want it to fall on its face.”

The robot was skeletally clad, with wiring and hardware visible, and lumbered onstage as it waved hello. A subsequent generation of the cyborg was also shown, supported by three people onstage.

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Musk said he wants the robot to be manufactured at scale, sold for less than $20,000, and encompass core physical capabilities, such as the ability to move all fingers independently, and opposable thumbs with degrees of freedom so it can operate tools.

“This means a future of abundance,” he said. “A future where there is no poverty. Where people … You can have whatever you want in terms of products and services.”

“It really is a fundamental transformation of civilization as we know it,” he said.

Tesla said its latest generation of the robot runs on a Tesla computer chip, with WiFi and LTE (long-term evolution) capabilities similar to a cellphone, along with audio and cybersecurity features. The company said it runs on a 2.3 kilowatt-hour battery pack, much less capacity than would be needed for an electric vehicle. The company said the robot’s hands have 11 degrees of freedom, an apparent reference to the directions in which they can move.

The company said it designed the robot with the same mass production targets in mind as when it would design a car, so the robot can be built as quickly as possible at scale. Tesla has said it could draw on the robot to perform tasks in its factories, which employ thousands of manufacturing workers.

Investors and financial analysts have expressed skepticism that Tesla will ultimately be able to build the robot, advising instead to focus on projects closer to Tesla’s core business of electric cars.

The demo Friday demonstrates how Musk wants to solve one of the toughest problems in robotics and artificial intelligence: how to make a machine that can replace a human.

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For years, companies including Amazon and Google have worked to create robots that are able to move and — in a feat that is deceptively challenging — pick up or work on items with mechanized claws or hands.

That Holy Grail of tech, which would allow companies to replace human workers with inexhaustible robots, hasn’t been achieved.

Tesla fans, online influencers and investors poured into the presentation Friday — where they arrived in Palo Alto, Calif., to a piece of obvious symbolism: a model of a gigantic fork in the middle of a road, according to photos posted on social media.

Last year at the same event, Musk unveiled the humanoid robot. He said the cyborg would be uncombative, standing roughly 5-foot-8: “It’s intended to be friendly, of course.” It would be designed to help with repetitive, menial tasks — and usher in a future where physical work would be a choice.

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Critically, Musk said, a person could “run away from it and most likely overpower it.”

Musk acknowledged Friday the sophistication of this year’s demo compared to the previous one.

“As you know last year it was just a person in a robot suit,” he said.

The Tesla bot is part of the company’s long-term effort to introduce a new era of automation, in which computer algorithms engage in humanlike decision-making and advance their knowledge independent of human input.

As the country grapples with worker shortages that have left a huge percentage of manufacturing jobs unfilled, companies are dreaming up new ways to automate work previously performed by humans. The efforts have faced criticism from organized labor but have also garnered acceptance when they can improve worker safety and open up new opportunities.

A company cracking the code on humanoid robots would certainly be a groundbreaking — if controversial — advancement in the effort.

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If it materializes, Optimus could initially disrupt manufacturing jobs that make up roughly 10 percent of U.S. labor, or $500 billion in yearly wages, Gene Munster, managing partner of Loup Ventures, wrote in an analysis.

“The global market for physical labor is many times larger than U.S. manufacturing labor,” he added.

Still, Musk is notorious for overpromising, particularly on his timelines. In 2019, Tesla unveiled its Cybertruck pickup, a truck with “unbreakable” windows, but the windows broke onstage during a demonstration.

The truck still has not been delivered. On Thursday, Musk tweeted that it would be “waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat.”

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The computer that runs the robot is derived from Tesla’s Full Self-Driving, which offers a set of features that enables cars to maneuver without a driver’s input and is in beta testing in 160,000 vehicles on public roads. Tesla still says drivers must pay attention at all times.

Musk has said he fears artificial intelligence could one day outsmart humans and endanger us, citing AI as the biggest threat to civilization. But he said that by building the Tesla robot, the company could ensure it would be safe.

“We’re just obviously making the pieces that are needed for a useful humanoid robot, so I guess we probably should make it,” he said last year. “And if we don’t, someone else would. … I guess we should make it and make sure it’s safe.”

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Around that time, in response to an account purporting to be Optimus, Musk offered some friendly advice.

He tweeted: “pls be nice to the humans.”

The company said the robot could help with repetitive tasks such as working on cars or making trips to the store.

Google researchers are using results from large language models and AI studies to teach simple robots to make decisions and perform more complicated tasks. (Video: Jonathan Baran/The Washington Post)

“This will be a key event for Musk to prove there is a strategic path on the Optimus front,” Dan Ives, an analyst for Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note aimed at investors ahead of the event.

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Tesla’s AI Day, Battery Day and similar events are typically aimed at recruiting and drumming up fervor for its latest products. Musk rounded out his remarks on the robot with a nod to those in the AI and robotics fields.

He said he was aiming “to convince some of the most talented people in the world to join Tesla and help make it a reality and bring it [the robot] to fruition at scale such that it can help millions of people.”

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Like some other Tesla products before it, the Tesla robot did not have a specific product rollout timeline. But answering a question about when it would be available to the general public, Musk said people could “probably receive” an Optimus within three to five years.

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Source: WP