Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims the company is building “really useful” humanoid robots that will be working in its factories from next year.
The world’s richest man, who has a penchant for making ambitious claims on social media, also posted on his platform X (formerly Twitter) that he wants to expand into “mass production” mode by 2026 so that he can sell human-like robots to other companies.
Tesla plans to build a small number of truly useful humanoid robots for its own use next year, and then mass-produce them for other companies, hopefully as soon as 2026.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2024
“}}”>
Tesla plans to build a small number of truly useful humanoid robots for its own use next year, and then mass-produce them for other companies, hopefully as soon as 2026.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2024
Musk, who owns X and is boss of SpaceX, has previously made bold claims about when the robot, called Optimus, might be ready for commercial use. The billionaire, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at $250bn (£194bn), said he expects the mechanoid to be ready for use in Tesla factories as soon as 2021.
Optimus is approximately 1.7 metres tall, weighs 56 kilograms and is designed to perform tasks that are “tedious, repetitive and dangerous”. The name is an allusion to Optimus Prime, the powerful and benevolent Autobot leader from the Transformers media franchise.
At Tesla’s AI Day event in 2021, unveiling a humanoid robot then dubbed the “Teslabot,” Musk hosted a bizarre demonstration featuring actors in bodysuits breakdancing to a soundtrack of electronic dance music.
At another AI Day event in 2022, Musk, who has argued that Tesla’s robotics business will one day be worth more than cars, took to the stage to show off a robot prototype that waved to the audience.
A video was released showing robots moving boxes, watering plants and moving metal rods inside an automaker’s factory.
After newsletter promotion
Musk has previously said his goal is to mass-produce the robots and make each one cost less than $20,000.
Optimus isn’t Musk’s only project that’s progressing slower than originally expected: In 2019, he said he was “very confident” that Tesla would have self-driving taxis on the roads the following year.
Musk said earlier this year that the model would be unveiled on August 8, but the launch is likely to be delayed after he said he requested changes to the front of the vehicle.
