After the teasers and rumors, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has finally unveiled the prototype of its Optimus humanoid robot.
The Tesla Optimus humanoid robot will share similar AI software and sensors that the brand’s autonomous cars have.
Musk said that the robot may cost less than USD20,000 (around Php1 million) and bragged about Tesla’s capacity to build the AI and actuators that are needed by the machine.
The CEO also said that, compared to other humanoid robot demonstrations (possibly also referring to the Xiaomi CyberOne), theirs are made to be mass produced in millions of units and are very cable.
Tesla started off the demonstration by revealing a deconstructed Optimus, which they call “Bumble C”, which then walked forward to do the “raise the roof” dance.
Musk said that intentionally wanted the robot to do minimal moves on stage for safety. To compensate, they showed a few video clips of Optimus doing other tasks.
Tesla Bot walking progress – modeled inside Autopilot sim pic.twitter.com/WCrXDFel3t
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 1, 2022
Tesla then showed another prototype version that’s actually “very close to production”. It was fully assembled but yet to be fully functional as it was attached to a stand. The prototype managed to wave and displayed the different motions that its wrist and hand can do.
The prototype runs on Tesla’s own chipset, has a 2.3kWh battery pack, and comes with WiFi and LTE connectivity. However, the demos really focused on addressing Optimus’s joints like the wrists, hands, and knees.
Optimus has biologically inspired hands, made to be useful in any setting pic.twitter.com/octnlLOYxY
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 1, 2022
Tesla said that the hands have a “Biologically Inspired Design” so they can be human-like. This means that it can pick up different types of items and have a precision grip just like what a human can do.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s Autopilot software was tailored to work on bots. They used motion capture of real people doing real-world tasks so Optimus can adapt them.
Elon Musk said that it is going to be their “most important product development” this year and is predicting that it may beat their vehicle business over time.