Tesla will build a humanoid robot called the Tesla Bot, CEO Elon Musk said Thursday.
“We’re good at sensors and batteries too, and we’ll likely have a prototype that looks like this next year,” Musk said shortly after an actor appeared on stage in what was supposed to be a Tesla robot bodysuit. He stated that the actor was not a real robot, but “Tesla Bot is going to be real”.
The announcement comes as a part of AI Day, a series of technical talks Tesla is hosting in California to recruit machine learning talent.
Tesla humanoid robot is an example of Musk’s demonstration announcing that Tesla is working on exciting products planned for the coming years to stimulate supporters including employees, customers, and investors. These reports are often not produced according to plan.
For example, at an Autonomy Day event in April 2019, Musk said the company would have 1 million autonomous “robots” on the streets by 2020. These robots were nowhere to be seen. In October 2016, Musk held an occasion behind Universal Studios in l. a. to showcase a product called the Sun Roof. The sun tiles shown are conceptual only.
If a humanoid robot works and should perform repetitive tasks that only humans can do today, it is the chance to transform the earth economy by lowering labor costs, Musk said.
However, Musk warned that the robot “might not work” at first.
“It’s naturally designed to be friendly to navigating the human world and eliminating dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks,” Musk said.
Musk said the robot codenamed “Optimus” is based on the same chips and sensors that Tesla cars use for self-government functions. It’s 5 feet 8 inches tall and has an inverted screen for useful information, Musk said. Tesla designed it so that humans could escape or overcome robots.
A slide shown by Tesla on Thursday showed that an autopilot camera was being mounted on the bot’s head. He would be able to carry 45 pounds, lift 150 pounds, and weigh 125 pounds. It could run at 5 miles per hour, Musk said.
Musk said the robot was not meant to be built by Tesla, but that Tesla was developing many of the computers needed for robotics, so it made sense for Tesla to build a robot.
“You should know, please go to the store and get me the following groceries, stuff like that,” Musk said.
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