Tesla’s Optimus Robot Could “End Poverty” According To Elon Musk

Tesla’s long-awaited Optimus humanoid robot has been showcased to the world at Tesla’s AI Day 2022.

The electric car manufacturer first announced its intention to commercialize a humanoid robot at last year’s AI event, infamously previewing it with an employee dancing around in a robot suit. This time it showed up with two functioning prototypes.

The first of the two prototypes is known as Bumble C and has been fitted with many “semi off-the-shelf” actuators from the car manufacturer. It was able to walk onto the stage and wave to the crowd, pretty much the same as what Honda’s ASIMO robot could do 22 years ago. A handful of videos were shown to the crowd of the prototype performing some tasks at the carmaker’s Fremont factory.

The second prototype is a reflection of what the eventual production model will look like. While it isn’t yet able to walk, it certainly looks more refined than the first prototype, clad in silver components with a black head and black shoulders.

Tesla revealed that the Optimus robot it intends to sell to the public will be equipped with a 2.3 kWh battery pack in the chest. It also features the same self-driving computer as Tesla vehicles, which the company believes will allow the robot to navigate the real world better than other robots.

Tesla Bot walking progress – modeled inside Autopilot sim pic.twitter.com/WCrXDFel3t

— Tesla (@Tesla) October 1, 2022

Optimus has biologically inspired hands, made to be useful in any setting pic.twitter.com/octnlLOYxY

— Tesla (@Tesla) October 1, 2022

Elon Musk is so confident in the robot that he believes it could be transformative for civilization, even making the outlandish claim that it will lead to “a future of abundance, a future where there is no poverty, where you could have whatever you want in terms of products and services.”

Initial plans call for the Optimus robot to set back customers less than $20,000, although we know Tesla has a history of missing price targets.

“Optimus is designed to be a very capable robot but made in very high volume, probably ultimately millions of units, and it is expected to cost much less than a car,” Musk said during his presentation. “I would say probably less than $20,000 would be my guess.”