Elon Musk Set to Unveil 'Optimus' Humanoid Robot After Delay on Tesla Day: All Details

 

Tesla's Optimus robot will be the star of the Tesla AI Day show, but Musk is also expected to discuss Tesla's long-delayed self-driving technology.

Investors, customers, and potential employees anticipate seeing a prototype at Tesla's "AI Day" on Friday that might demonstrate whether the robot known as "Optimus" is prepared for work. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has stated that a robot business will be worth more than its automobiles.

In addition to talking about Tesla's long-delayed self-driving technology, Musk is anticipated to be the headliner of the AI show, which will be the robot. Without obtaining full self-driving capacity, the most valuable automaker in the world, according to Elon Musk, would be "worth effectively zero." The company also confronts increasing governmental scrutiny in addition to technological challenges.

Musk added that the event was intended to attract engineers by writing on Twitter late on Wednesday, "There will be lots of technical information & interesting hardware demos."

Tesla has had a mixed history with live demonstrations. Launches are usually met with applause, but in 2019, Musk had a worker throw a steel ball at a new electric pickup truck's armoured window, causing the glass to break.

The robot's ability to respond to unforeseen circumstances will be put to the test.

Musk revealed Tesla's plans for humanoid robots at its AI day in August of last year. This year's event was postponed until the robot prototype was operational, with a goal of starting production perhaps in 2019.

Tesla used a picture of metallic robotic hands forming a heart shape to preview the release of the bot on social media. However, creating flexible, human-like hands that can handle a variety of objects is incredibly difficult, according to Heni Ben Amor, an Arizona State University robotics expert.

According to Musk, Optimus would first do tedious or hazardous tasks, such as transporting components around Tesla plants or tightening a bolt to a car with a tool. Optimus is a reference to the strong and kind leader of the Autobots in the Transformers media universe.

"There are so many dexterous human abilities that robots find extremely difficult to replicate. And that won't change whether the robot is an arm-like robot or looks like a humanoid "According to Jonathan Hurst, chief technology officer at the humanoid robot company Agility Robotics, Reuters.

According to Musk, robots may someday prepare meals, mow the yard, take care of the elderly, and even act as a human's "buddy" or sex partner in the home.

He is expected to provide updates at the event on Friday regarding Tesla's much-delayed plans to introduce self-driving vehicles as well as its high-speed computer, Dojo, which was launched last year and is claimed to be essential to the company's development of self-driving vehicles technology.

According to Musk, Tesla should be fully self-driving by the end of this year, and by 2024, a robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedal would be mass produced.

Musk pledged to deploy 1 million robotaxis by 2020 during a "Autonomy" presentation in 2019, but has yet to do so.