For the uninitiated, Optimus, also known as Tesla Bot, is a general-purpose robotic humanoid under development by Tesla, Inc. The presentation of Optimus at Tesla’s AI Day was hyped, but the optimus robots are, indeed, very fascinating. Will it take many more years for it to get to being a useful assistant? Maybe not. 

Optimus can help with everyday tasks, like grocery shopping and mowing the lawn, babysitting your kids, walking your dog, serving after-dinner drinks – or it can just be your friend, Musk said.

Tesla plans to manufacture a limited number of Optimus robots in 2025 for internal use, with wider availability in 2026. Musk expects the robot to reach a production scale of 1 million units per year within five to six years.

The attendees were able to have conversations with the humanoid and Optimus was seen dancing and serving drinks to the crowd. The work that Tesla Engineers and AI teams have been doing is incredibly impressive. With equally impressive competition from the likes of Honda, Agility, Boston Dynamics, 1X Neo, it’s a matter of time before we have humanoids walking down the aisles of grocery stores or walking down the halls in our homes. 

Generating revenue from these may be a little far off, but innovation is where these humanoids score high, not just for tesla engineers, but the larger AI/Robotics community. But that’s not where it ends… are decepticons coming next? 

“The Optimus will walk amongst you,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk qips. “You’ll be able to walk right up to them, and they will serve drinks.”

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/10/24267225/tesla-robotaxi-optimus-we-robot