AUSTIN, Texas — Elon Musk is showing off the progress on his “Terminator”-style Tesla Bot. The humanoid Optimus robot was a showcase presentation at the Tesla 2023 Investor Day on March 1.
The billionaire tech entrepreneur showed off scenes of the robot working to repair others, in a room filled with spare arms, just like in the James Cameron sci-fi thrillers. The Tesla Bots were also walking around and performing tasks with tools.
“It’s worth bearing in mind that when we did AI day, this version of Optimus didn’t walk at all. So the rate of improvement here is quite significant,” Musk told reporters. “It’s obviously not doing parkour, but it is walking around, and we have multiple copies, I suppose, of Optimus.”
Musk also pointed out that his robot would have real-world artificial intelligence, making its own decisions like his self-driving cars.
“The thing that Tesla brings to the table that others don’t have, we’re the most advanced in real-world AI. So the same AI that drives the car,” Musk continues. “You can think of the car as a robot on wheels, and this is a robot on legs. I don’t think there’s anyone even close to Tesla on solving real-world AI.”
Tesla’s 2023 Investor Day took place at the company’s Gigafactory in Texas, with investors able to see the firm’s “most advanced production line” as well as “discuss long term expansion plans, generation 3 platform, capital allocation and other subjects” with the company’s leadership team.
“It’s not that helpful to have a humanoid robot if you have to program every action. It needs to be able to walk around autonomously and solve tasks,” Musk explains. “You should be able to instruct it in simple things, by showing visually the robot needs to do, or just telling it what to do. That’s the key advantage that we have.”
The company first announced the development of the Tesla Bot at their Artificial Intelligence Day event on Aug. 19, 2021.
Previously, Elon Musk has said that he thinks Optimus “has the potential to be more significant than the vehicle business over time.”
South West News Service writer Dean Murray contributed to this report.
