Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, announced Thursday that the company will build a humanoid robot named “Tesla Bot.”
“We’re already good at batteries and sensors, and we’ll most likely have a prototype in the coming year that looks like this, Musk described after a model appeared on the stage in a bodysuit designed to appear like the Tesla robot. The CEO remarked that the model wasn’t a real robot, but “the bot from Tesla will be real.”
The announcement from Tesla was made during a series of tech talks hosted by the company as part of AI Day in California to hunt for machine learning talent.
It demonstrates Musk’s showmanship and desire to promote futuristic products to energize backers, including investors, employees, and customers. But experts say such an announcement often doesn’t happen on a predicted timeline.
For instance, Musk announced at an ‘Autonomy Day event in April 2019 that his company would have a 1 million self-directed “robotaxis” on the road in 2020. Those robotaxis haven’t arrived yet.
Musk showed off a product called Solar Roof in October 2016 at an event held at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. The solar roof tiles on the show turned out to be only conceptual.
“If it works well and can perform repetitive tasks that only humans can do today, then humanoid robots can transform the world economy by lowering labour costs, “Musk said.
But the robot “probably won’t work” initially. It’s intended to be friendly and navigate through a human environment. It will lessen the burden of repetitive, boring, and dangerous tasks,” the Tesla CEO informed.
The announced robot, codenamed “Optimus,” is based on the same sensors and chips used in Tesla’s self-driving features. It is described as five feet eight inches in height and has a screen where the head provides information.
Tesla is designing robots so humans can run away from them, or they may even make them ineffective.
Slides were shown by Tesla on Thursday, explaining that the bot’s head would be installed with Autopilot cameras. Some other functions of the robot include the ability to lift 150 pounds, carry around 45 pounds, and weigh 125 pounds. It can also run 5 miles an hour, Musk said.
Musk told the audience that the robot wasn’t aimed at boosting Tesla’s production but that we’re developing many computers critical for robotics, so there is reason for the company to build such a robot.
“You know, it should be able to go to the shop and get to you some groceries, that kind of thing,” the Tesla CEO said.