The Tesla Bot is on display at the Tesla Giga Texas manufacturing facility during the “Cyber Rodeo” grand opening party on April 7, 2022 in Austin, Texas.
Susanne Cordeiro | AFP | Getty Images
Tesla could begin production of a humanoid robot called Optimus as early as next year, CEO Elon Musk said Thursday.
The electric vehicle maker first teased the robot, also known as the Tesla Bot, at its “AI Day” in August 2021, saying it will be an all-purpose machine that can do a variety of tasks.
“We have a chance, hopefully next year, to put the first version of Optimus into production,” Musk said Thursday at the grand opening of Tesla’s new vehicle assembly plant in Austin, Texas, where he — wearing a cowboy hat and sunglasses — stood on stage with Dr. Dre’s “Still DRE”
However, Tesla has yet to unveil a working prototype of the robot, and it’s unclear how sophisticated Optimus is at this point.
Musk claimed that Optimus will eventually be able to do anything humans don’t want to do, claiming that this will usher in an “age of plenty.”
Musk struck an optimistic tone, also suggesting that the robot “will change the world … to an even greater extent” than the cars Tesla is known for. “It might be hard to imagine,” he said.
AI has been hailed as a potential threat to humanity, and Musk said in 2018 that he believes AI is more dangerous than nuclear weapons. “As you see how Optimus develops, everyone will make sure it’s safe,” he said Thursday. “No Terminator stuff or anything.”
He previously said Tesla was designing the robot so humans would be able to run away from it or overpower it.
When Musk first announced Tesla’s robot, he said it would be based on the same chips and sensors that the company’s cars use for self-driving functions. According to Musk, it stands 1.60 meters tall and has a head-level screen for useful information.
Many people initially thought the bot was little more than an AI recruitment tool for Tesla, but Musk said in January that the robot is actually a top priority for new product development this year.
“I think it has the potential to become more important than the vehicle business over time,” Musk said of the robot at the time. The fact that he’s now talking about 2023 production suggests that Optimus is indeed a serious endeavor.
AI researcher and entrepreneur Gary Marcus told CNBC he’s willing to make a bet that by the end of 2023, no robot will be able to do all human tasks.
“Tesla hasn’t come close (after years of effort) to reliably accomplishing a relatively simple task (driving); to suggest that a robot that has never been publicly shown will solve all human tasks in the next year or two is absurd,” he said.
“He can deliver whatever he wants next year since he’s the boss, but there’s no way version one will come close to his ambitions if it’s released so soon.”
Musk is known for his showmanship in which he announces that Tesla is working on exciting products planned for years into the future to motivate supporters such as employees, customers and investors. Product launches often don’t happen on the predicted schedule.
For example, at an Autonomy Day event in April 2019, Musk said the company would have 1 million autonomous “robotaxis” on the road by 2020. These robotaxis are nowhere to be seen.
And in October 2016, Musk hosted an event on the Universal Studios lot in Los Angeles to showcase a product he called the Solar Roof. The solar roof tiles on display turned out to be purely conceptual.
— Additional coverage by CNBC’s Kif Leswing.