Yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk issued a statement saying they are going to change their product development. The Tesla Bot, known as Optimus, is "the most important product development we're doing this year," he says. In other words, Tesla will put more effort, time and money into the humanoid robot project than into the Cybertruck pickup truck or the Roadster supercar.
Tesla Optimus Project
Musk first unveiled the robot during the Tesla AI Day event in August 2021. Optimus is 5'8" tall and weighs 125 pounds. In the future, it will take over dangerous, repetitive physical tasks from humans. Incidentally, the Tesla Bot will run on the same AI system as Tesla's driver-assistance technology, such as Autopilot.
Interestingly, when introducing Optimus, Musk said building Optimus should be easier as they would use existing designs and parts from the development of autonomous driving technology. So if Tesla doesn't do it, someone else will. But if others build an AI robot like Optimus, it could be just as safe as if Tesla did.
See also: Tesla does not have a research center: mass production of products often exceeds the budget - Elon Musk
In addition, Musk said they are working hard to have a humanoid robot prototype ready by the end of 2022. Although at the presentation, Musk said that it would not be prioritized over other Tesla products.
Why change strategy?
The world is changing. And in the world of the future, artificial general intelligence (AGI) will play a key role. So, Tesla, through the project of a humanoid robot, wants to have a certain impact on development.
Unsurprisingly, Tesla's director of artificial intelligence Andrei Karpathy said yesterday that "Tesla Bot is on track to become the most powerful platform for developing artificial intelligence."
Elon Musk said:
In terms of prioritizing products, I think actually the most important product development we're doing this year is the Optimus humanoid robot.
Also, speaking about the Optimus project, Musk said that the upcoming Tesla robot could help solve the labor shortage:
I think that the Tesla Optimus may eventually become more significant than the car business. If you think about the economy, then the basis of the economy is labor. The main equipment is distilled labor. So what happens if you don't actually have a labor shortage? I don't even know what economics is in this case. That's what Optimus is. So, very important.
Initially, the Tesla Bot will be used in Tesla's own factories, "if we can't find a use for it, then don't expect others to."
