- Elon Musk stays optimistic that Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robotic, will start delivery subsequent yr.
- In an earnings name Wednesday, he additionally stated it was “impossible to make a precise prediction.”
- Musk could also be outpaced by rivals aiming to ship or check their humanoid robots extra swiftly.
Elon Musk has been bigging up Tesla as a robotics powerhouse, highlighting its humanoid bot, Optimus, as a gleaming instance of its refined expertise.
It is potential, nonetheless, that Musk is being a tad over-optimistic in his humanoid robotic ambitions, notably relating to its supply timeline.
The Tesla CEO stated there is a “good chance” the corporate would begin delivery some models of Optimus subsequent yr in an earnings name with traders Wednesday.
However Musk is not identified to be probably the most correct of forecasters. His biographer Walter Isaacson as soon as stated Musk was “always wrong by two or three times” by how briskly he may obtain targets. One instance was wrongly predicting that SpaceX may launch a manned mission to Mars by 2022.
The billionaire himself stated within the earnings name that he is “often optimistic,” then caveated his projection by saying, “When there’s a lot of uncertainty and you’re in uncharted territory, it’s obviously impossible to make a precise prediction. We will be updating the public with progress on Optimus every few months.”
Final yr, Tesla was pushing out updates on Optimus each few months, sharing movies of it doing yoga stretches, then squatting and selecting up an egg. It looks like it is being primed for home use however Musk has been hazy on the small print, though he did say at Tesla’s AI day in 2022 that it will “probably” price lower than $20,000.
In true Musk vogue, he made some grand claims about Optimus within the traders’ name. He stated, “Tesla’s arguably already the biggest robot maker in the world. It’s the most sophisticated humanoid robot that’s been developed anywhere in the world.”
Sure, it is true that Optimus can fold a shirt, however its rivals are outpacing Tesla in terms of delivering the products.
Humanoid robotic maker Determine AI simply signed an settlement with German automaker BMW and it is hoping to ship this yr, its CEO Brett Adcock stated in an X submit. After which there’s Apptronik and Agility Robotics, which have already got their robotics being examined by Amazon in warehouses.
The Tesla chief pointed to desirous to “make sure that Optimus is safe” as a potential cause for any supply delays. He stated, “It should be impossible for any centralized control to upload malware to a humanoid robot.”
Tesla did not instantly reply to Enterprise Insider’s request for remark, made outdoors of regular working hours.
