How Tesla’s Optimus Robot Could Transform Daily Life
“They’ll serve you cocktails, babysit your kids, walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries—whatever you can think of, it will do,” says Elon Musk.
The robot revolution is coming, and Elon Musk is leading the charge. But fear not—these new robots won’t be jacked-up cyborgs like the Terminator destroying humanity. If Musk has his way, they’ll be more like humanoid C-3PO-ish butlers. “They’ll serve you cocktails, babysit your kids, walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries—whatever you can think of, it will do,” Musk explains. At least that’s his vision for Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot, which he believes will be “the biggest product ever of any kind.” Sure, that’s a pretty bold prediction. But you don’t want to bet against a guy with a proven track record of turning moon shots into moneymakers. The world’s richest man has already revolutionized electric vehicles with Tesla, transformed space travel with SpaceX and disrupted social media by taking over Twitter, which he rebranded as X. Now, he’s betting that his robots will propel Tesla to a staggering $25 trillion valuation.
Optimus Goes Prime Time
Last fall, Musk demonstrated a posse of Optimus bots at the “We, Robot” event at Warner Bros. studios in Los Angeles. With white gleaming metallic frames and LED-lit faces, the robots mingled with the crowd, poured cocktails, posed for selfies and danced on a lit-up stage. But perhaps the most buzzworthy Optimus appearance came when reality TV queen Kim Kardashian featured the bot on her socials. In a series of videos posted to both X and her Instagram Story, Kardashian asks the humanoid to make heart shapes with its hands, perform Hawaiian dance moves and play rock-paper-scissors. She even got exclusive access to a one-of-a-kind gold-plated version of her new companion. Kayne who? The latest appearances showcased how far Tesla has come since Optimus’s 2021 announcement, where a human dressed as a humanoid danced on stage. Now, Optimus is interacting with guests in surprisingly sentient ways. At the “We, Robot” event, an attendee was overheard asking Optimus about the biggest challenge of being a robot. “Trying to learn how to be as human as you guys,” Optimus responded with unsettling self-awareness. “And that’s something I try harder to do every day.” Yikes!
Built To Impress
Optimus marks a breakthrough in humanoid robotics. Standing 5-feet, 8-inches tall and weighing 125 pounds, it can carry up to 45 pounds and uses the same advanced AI system that powers Tesla’s vehicle autopilot. The robot’s hands feature 11 degrees of freedom, allowing for complex manipulations that mimic human dexterity. Throughout 2024, Optimus has shown off an expanding repertoire of abilities ranging from sorting colored blocks to doing yoga poses. Its neural networks are constantly learning, adapting and improving, much like a human intern mastering new skills. The question is: Will the student eventually become the master?
The Price Is Right
By 2025, Tesla aims to have more than 1,000 Optimus robots working in its factories, learning and perfecting their skills before being released to other companies and eventually consumers. Unlike traditional industrial robots confined to specific tasks, Optimus is designed to be a sort of AI MacGyver, as comfortable building cars in a factory as folding laundry at your house. How much will one of these puppies cost you? Anywhere between $20,000 and $30,000. That may seem like a lot at face value, but it’s less than a year’s salary for many human assistants.
Beyond Just Humanoids
S Optimus is just part of Musk’s ambitious vision of an automated future. He also has plans to release Tesla’s Cybercab, a robotaxi that ditches everything we know about cars. No steering wheel, no pedals, not even a charging plug. Instead, it has butterfly-wing doors and charges wirelessly from a pad underneath, just like a smartphone. Tesla plans to sell it for less than $30,000 before 2027. Musk is also touting the Robovan—a 20-seat autonomous vehicle that looks like an old-timey locomotive, with overhead glass portals, finned lighting and a sliding door on its right side. The Robovan could have multiple purposes—school bus, mass transit, maybe even a party bus for weddings. Musk is investing heavily in all these projects, saying he wants to transform Tesla from an electric car manufacturer into “an AI robotics company.”
The Race To Build Tomorrow
Musk isn’t the only one betting on bots. The robotics landscape is blowing up, with companies like Boston Dynamics, Agility, Neura and Apptronik all working to advance the field. Each brings its own approach to humanoid robotics, from parkour wall climbers to industrial workhorses. In the autonomous vehicle space, Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motor’s Cruise have already completed hundreds of thousands of driverless trips, paving the way for Tesla’s ambitious plans. But none of these technologies match Musk’s vision of bringing robots into our homes as everyday companions.
Haters Gonna Hate
Despite Musk’s optimism about Optimus, he’s received a bunch of flack from haters in the robotics world. Many experts are skeptical about Musk’s ambitious timeline and the practicality of a general-purpose humanoid robot. They argue that the technology required for such a versatile machine is still years, if not decades, away from being realized. His critics also point to the challenges Tesla has faced with its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised) systems, which have been plagued by delays and safety concerns. They question whether the company has the expertise and resources to tackle the even more complex task of developing a fully functional humanoid robot. “Optimus is just a complete and utter scam,” Filip Piekniewski, an AI researcher and robotics expert, posted on X, calling it “next-level cringeworthy.” He said it would be “good to test falling, as this thing will be falling a lot.”
Best Bots Forever
Despite the doubters, Musk is confident Optimus could represent the next great leap forward in human-robot collaboration. “I think by 2040, there will probably be more humanoid robots than there are people,” he predicted last year at an appearance at the Future Investment Initiative Institute. He also thinks everyone will own one. “I think every one of the 8 billion people of Earth, I think everyone’s going to want their Optimus buddy,” he said. Here’s hoping all those humanoids are more like Optimus than Megatron.
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