Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, displayed his much-touted humanoid robot "Optimus" at the company's "AI Day" event on Friday.
The billionaire has stated that a robot business will be worth more than its automobiles, intending to go beyond self-driving vehicles despite his repeated assurances.
A robot prototype walked onto the stage and waved to the spectators. A video of the robot in the automaker's facility carrying a box, watering plants, and moving metal bars was presented.
Musk stated at the event held at a Tesla facility in Palo Alto, California, "Our goal is to produce an usable humanoid robot as rapidly as feasible." There is still much work to be done to enhance and validate Optimus.
Musk stated that present humanoid robots are "brainless," as they lack the capacity to traverse the world on their own and are expensive and produced in small quantities.
In contrast, he stated that Optimus would be a "highly capable robot" that would be manufactured in extremely large quantities – ultimately millions of units – and would cost significantly less than a car, at under $20,000.
Musk was also anticipated to speak on Tesla's long-delayed autonomous driving technology.
In May, the CEO stated that the world's most valuable automaker would be "essentially worthless" if it did not achieve full self-driving capacity, and it faces increasing regulatory and technological obstacles.
"There will be tons of technical information and cool hardware demos," Musk said late Wednesday night on Twitter, adding that the event was geared toward attracting engineers.
Tesla's record of live demonstrations is uneven. In 2019, Musk had an employee throw a steel ball at the armored window of a new electric pickup vehicle, which caused the glass to shatter.
The most important test for the robot is its ability to deal with unforeseen scenarios.
Musk disclosed Tesla's proposal for humanoid robots at the company's AI day in August of 2016 and delayed this year's AI day in order to have a working robot prototype, with plans to begin manufacturing next year.
On social media, Tesla teased the presentation of the robot with an image of metallic robotic hands forming a heart.
Professor of robotics at Arizona State University Heni Ben Amor remarked that it is incredibly difficult to create human-like hands that can manage a variety of objects.
According to Musk, Optimus, a reference to the powerful and benign commander of the Autobots in the Transformers media property, first performed tedious or dangerous tasks, such as moving parts around Tesla plants or connecting a bolt to a car.
"There are numerous aspects of human dexterity that are extremely challenging for robots. And it will not change whether the robot is a robot arm or a humanoid, said Jonathan Hurst, chief technology officer at Agility Robotics, a humanoid robot company, to Reuters.
Musk has stated that in the future, robots may be used in households to prepare meals, mow the lawn, care for the elderly, and even serve as a "buddy" or sex partner for humans.
In addition, he is expected to provide updates on Tesla's high-speed computer, Dojo, which was debuted last year and, according to the firm, is crucial to the development of self-driving technology.
Musk has stated that he anticipates Tesla will accomplish fully autonomous driving this year and mass produce a robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals by 2024.
Musk promised one million robotaxis by 2020 during a "Autonomy" event in 2019, however he has yet to create such a vehicle.
