Tesla’s ultimate goal is for its Optimus humanoid robot to contribute to the car-building process. Although it is not capable of doing so at present, Elon Musk has shared a recent video showcasing the robot’s impressive ability to fold clothes.
We are increasingly beginning to view the Optimus project with greater seriousness.
When Tesla Bot, also referred to as Optimus, was initially introduced, it appeared to be an underdeveloped concept from CEO Elon Musk, with a performer disguised as a robot for visual demonstration. The lackluster demonstration at Tesla AI Day in 2022 did not help matters either.
During that period, Tesla possessed an early prototype that did not appear to be particularly remarkable. It could barely walk and wave at the audience, and that was about the extent of its capabilities.
However, significant progress has been made on the project since then.
I observed that the project gained credibility during Tesla’s 2023 shareholders meeting last year.
At that time, Tesla presented several more advanced prototypes that were able to perform genuinely useful tasks.
In September, we received another update on Optimus. According to the report, Tesla has begun training Optimus using neural networks end-to-end, enabling it to autonomously perform new tasks such as object sorting.
Last month, Tesla introduced “Optimus Gen 2”, a state-of-the-art humanoid robot that has undergone significant refinement:
In the future, Tesla envisions people welcoming this robot into their homes to carry out a wide variety of tasks. However, the automaker’s initial plan is to deploy these robots in its own manufacturing facilities to handle repetitive and potentially hazardous tasks.
While the company hasn’t completely achieved its goal yet, it has recently made remarkable advancements.
Today, Musk shared a new video featuring the Optimus Gen 2 robot effortlessly folding a shirt:
At first glance, it may not seem like much compared to a human, but this demonstration highlights the impressive dexterity of the humanoid robot.
Milan Kovac, one of the project’s lead engineers, commented on the robot’s ability to tackle increasingly complex tasks:
It appears that Tesla is also working on expanding Optimus’ range of useful functions within its own operations.
Tesla firmly believes that it possesses the ideal foundation to develop the first truly practical humanoid robot. By leveraging its expertise in artificial intelligence from its self-driving vehicle program, as well as its deep knowledge of batteries and electric motors, the company argues that its vehicles are essentially robots on wheels.
Tesla has the potential to replace humans in certain tasks by creating humanoid forms and training them accordingly.
Source:
Tesla Optimus robot can’t build cars yet, but it is folding clothes
