Published 23:00 IST, August 7th 2022
Elon Musk says people will be 'blown away' by Tesla Optimus robot set to unveil on Sept 30
Elon Musk, during Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting, also claimed that the Optimus robot will eventually become "more valuable than the cars".
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has claimed that people will be 'blown away' when his company's humanoid robot is unveiled at Tesla AI Day #2 on September 30. Musk made the statements during the annual shareholder meeting held earlier this week and even claimed that the Tesla bots would eventually become "more valuable than the cars". Named Optimus, the bi-pedal humanoid robot was first introduced by Musk at Tesla’s AI Day in August last year.
During the Cyber Rodeo event in April this year, Musk was heard explaining the AI-driven Tesla Optimus's purpose saying, "It will be able to do basically anything humans don’t want to do. It will do it. It’s going to bring an age of abundance".
Tesla's official website says that the robot is "capable of performing tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring". As for the features of the Tesla Optimus, it weighs a little over 56 kg (125 kg) and stands five feet eight inches tall. According to Tesla, the robot has a carrying capacity of around 20 kg, can deadlift up to 68 kg and walk at a speed of eight kilometres per hour. Musk stated that his company will ensure that the robot is safe, does no "terminator stuff" and "transform the world to a degree even greater than the car".
When will Tesla Optimus go on sale?
In January this year, Musk said that the development of Optimus is the top priority over other Tesla products and even revealed later that the robot will enter production in 2023, thus the sale possible no earlier than next year. According to a report by Electrek, the electric car company had targets for releasing a prototype of the robot this year. The second AI Day was previously scheduled for August 19, however, Musk later postponed the event saying that the prototype may be ready by then.
While announcing the production timeline of the robot, Musk said that it will be accompanied by many other products such as Tesla's semi-EV, robo taxi as well as the much-awaited Cybertruck, which will go on sale in 2023.
Updated 23:00 IST, August 7th 2022