Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus will be unveiled at Artificial Intelligence Day at the end of this month, and the company is currently making ambitious plans to deploy thousands of these robots in its Texas factory. According to the latest job posting, Tesla is already hiring for a large number of Optimus-related positions, and currently has around 20 openings for the Optimus project, including positions to design key robot components, with the Autopilot team already involved.
Elon Musk is reportedly working on plans to deploy thousands of Optimus robots in its Texas factory, and eventually millions more worldwide.
Elon Musk has previously gone on record saying that in the long run, robots could be used in the home, for tasks including cooking, mowing the lawn, caring for the elderly, and could even be human companions. He has also said that the robotics business could eventually be worth more than Tesla’s car revenue.
Tesla is reportedly set to unveil a prototype of its Optimus project at its Artificial Intelligence Day on September 30, with Elon Muskrevealing that production could begin next year.
But robotics experts, investors and analysts have questioned how Tesla is going to justify the cost of using “general purpose” robots in factories, homes and elsewhere when there are already a number of specialized robots in use in the industrial sector.
According to Shaun Azimi, head of NASA’s Dexterous Robotics Team, “It turns out that self-driving cars aren’t as easy as anyone thought. To some extent, this is especially true of humanoid robots. It’s very difficult to remain flexible and robust to these changes if the unexpected happens.”
According to Elon Musk, Optimus Prime will initially perform boring or dangerous jobs in factories, and he acknowledged that humanoid robots are not yet capable of reacting in the real world without explicit instructions. But he said Tesla could use its expertise in artificial intelligence and key components to develop and produce intelligent but less costly humanoid robots on a large scale.
However Gene Munster, managing partner at venture capital firm Loup Ventures, said investors were not interested in Optimus Prime, a technology that is very unlikely to be used on a large scale and is much more difficult to use than self-driving cars.
