Tesla’s humanoid robot is still in the lab, but it could be ready to sell by the end of next year, Chief Executive Elon Musk said Tuesday.
Many companies are betting on humanoid robots to fill potential labor shortages and perform dangerous or tedious tasks in industries such as logistics, warehousing, retail and manufacturing.
Musk told investors on a conference call that he estimates the Tesla robot, called Optimus, will be able to perform tasks at the factory by the end of this year.
Humanoid robots have been under development for several years by Japan’s Honda and Hyundai Motor’s Boston Dynamics.
This year, Microsoft and Nvidia-backed startup Figure said it had signed a partnership with German automaker BMW to deploy humanoid robots at the carmaker’s facility in the United States.
Billionaire Musk has previously said that robot sales could become a bigger part of Tesla’s business than other sectors, including car manufacturing.
“I think Tesla is in the best position of any humanoid robot maker in terms of being able to reach volume production with efficient inference on robots,” Musk said on Tuesday’s call, referring to artificial intelligence capabilities. “
Musk has a history of failing to deliver on the bold promises he has made to Wall Street. In 2019, he told investors that Tesla would operate a network of “robotaxis” autonomous cars by 2020.
Tesla launched the first generation of its Optimus robot, called Bumblebee, in September 2022. This year, the company posted a video of the second generation of a bipedal robot folding a T-shirt at the firm’s facility.
A video released in February of the Figure 01 robot showed it making coffee, while Boston Dynamics last week unveiled an electric platform for its Atlas humanoid robot that can go from lying down to standing and walking. Twisting and turning was seen in the situation.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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