Tesla's Optimus robot, which played a key role in the luxury robotaxi unveiled by Elon Musk last week, was not fully autonomous and relied on human intervention, attendees and analysts said.
The Verge report At Tesla's highly anticipated “We, Robot” event held in conjunction with the CyberCab robotaxi launch, the company will interact with the crowd by serving drinks, playing games with guests, and dancing. Optimus humanoid robot was unveiled. The robot's ability to participate in conversations and respond to verbal and visual cues impressed many participants. However, it has become clear that the robot's seemingly advanced capabilities are largely due to human assistance behind the scenes.
Attendee Robert Scoble initially posted about the robot's impressive performance, but later revealed that he had heard from an engineer that the robot was being “remotely assisted” by a human. This revelation was further corroborated by Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, who noted in a report that the robots “rely on remote control (human intervention).”
Several tell-tale signs pointed to the involvement of a human operator in the operation of the Optimus robot. For example, each robot had a different voice, and responses to attendees' questions were immediate and accompanied by matching gestures. In one video, the Optimus robot jokingly admitted to participants that it may be partially controlled by AI, while another robot said in a stilted synthesized voice, “Today we have no human assistance.'' '', admitting that it is not completely under control. autonomous.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a history of using theatrical elements to generate buzz about his company's products. The first unveiling of the humanoid robot featured a figure in a robot suit on stage, setting the tone for the exaggerated presentations of the Optimus robot at recent events. Although attendees didn't seem to feel fooled by the robot's assisted performance, the event provided little insight into the actual progress of Tesla's humanoid robot research.
Tesla's robotaxi event was a huge failure, and Tesla's stock price plummeted. As Breitbart News previously reported:
In typical Musk fashion, the billionaire entrepreneur made bold claims about CyberCab's price and schedule. He said Tesla expects costs to be under $30,000 and that the vehicle will go into production sometime in 2026, before saying, “Well, I tend to be a little optimistic about the timeframe, but… “In 2026…I'd say before 2027,” he hedged. Like that. ” Musk also claimed that CyberCab would be the “cheapest transportation option in history,” even suggesting that the price per mile could be as low as 50 cents.
But many are skeptical of Musk's track record of delivering on his ambitious promises. The CEO has spent much of the last decade touting the impending arrival of fully self-driving Tesla cars, with that goalpost always seeming to be just a few years away. In 2019, Musk infamously claimed that Tesla would have 1 million robotaxis on the road by 2020, a prediction that never materialized. More recently, in 2022, Musk said that Tesla's fully self-driving (FSD) technology would probably allow him to drive from home to work without human intervention by the end of the year, but this also remains unfulfilled. That's a promise. Website tracks Musk A history of broken promises.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News, covering free speech and online censorship issues.
