Back in August 2021, on Tesla’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Day, Elon Musk announced Optimus with a person in a robot suit. Musk had shown high hopes for this project, and wanted Optimus to succeed past Tesla’s vehicle business. Optimus is described as a multiple use robotic assistant that has been designed to carry out tasks that are “dangerous, repetitive, and boring” to humans. Optimus is powered by artificial intelligence, while it can also walk, lift and carry objects, climb stairs, control items freely, and seems like almost anything we can do. The Tesla Bot relies on advanced artifical intelligence systems that are like those that are used in Tesla’s vehicles, such as navigation, machine learning processes, and object detection. All that has been used in Tesla’s cars will be used in these robots, Musk says.
By December 2023, Tesla has created Optimus Gen 2. This version has a slimmed down design, improved movements, and enhanced hands. In May of 2024, a video was published showing the Tesla Bot performing all kinds of different jobs and tasks in a Tesla factory. Optimus Gen 2 has been shown moving across obstacles and human workers, and even handling objects by itself. The AI of the robot allows adaptation and learning, progress at its performance and ability to adapt over time. Many other robotic companies have gambled over machine learning, and to train their robots that are “humanoid” for jobs in factories and warehouses.
The Optimus robot is 173 centimeters tall, which is five feet and eight point eleven inches, and weighs 57 kilograms, or 125.7 pounds. Optimus was in fact named after the Transformers character, Optimus Prime. Tesla Bot’s hands have many degrees of freedom, and can hold an egg without cracking it. Humanoid robots such as Optimus will be “the biggest product ever of any kind” according to Elon Musk.