Tesla has introduced his humanoid robot named Optimus to the audience Berlin demonstrated. The machine dispensed popcorn at the Christmas market in the LP12 shopping center. The robot grabbed small popcorn boxes, filled them up and handed them to visitors. A long queue formed at the stand. As with other similar demonstrations by Tesla, it remained unclear to what extent Optimus acted autonomously or was at least partially controlled remotely.
Musk sees the future in robots
While sales of Tesla’s electric cars are expected to fall again this year, announced CEO Elon Muskthat the future of the company will lie in self-driving robotaxis and human-like robots.
Musk insists that the company’s Optimus robots have the potential to become the “greatest product of all time.” Version 3, planned for next year, will move so smoothly that it will appear “like a human in a robot costume,” he said in October.
Optimus as a surgeon?
Musk also predicts that there will be more robots than people in the world. Self-driving cars and robots would bring about a “world without poverty” in which everyone has access to the best medical care. Because: “Optimus will be an incredible surgeon,” Musk announced. He hopes to start production of the robots by the end of next year.
So far, reports assume that the robots are still partially controlled remotely during presentations. A video caused a stir online in which an Optimus robot falls backwards like a board at an event in Miami. Before falling, he raises both arms to his head; its movement suggests that a human controlling it from a distance took off 3D glasses. Tesla did not comment on this.
Contested future markets
Tesla has a lot of competition in both self-driving taxis and robots. Many Chinese companies are researching robots and US companies such as Agility Robotics and Figure AI are working on using the machines in industry. Robots from Figure AI completed tasks at the BMW US plant in Spartanburg for six months as a test.
Meanwhile, Google sister company Waymo is the leader in autonomous driving. It has more than 2,500 driverless vehicles in use in various US cities, while Tesla has so far had a few dozen cars in the Texas city of Austin with an attendant in the passenger seat.
