A new experiment of the Tesla Company that could have a major impact on society and has the potential to become a disruptive threat amongst multiple industries, is the so-called ‘Tesla Bot’. It can take over several repetitive and household tasks, so that in the future you can use your valuable time for work, sports, etc. The machine cannot walk fast but it can lift heavy objects, as it can deadlift around 68 kilograms (Alamalhodaei & Bellan, 2021; Kelvey, 2021). This is done with the intent that you can run away from the bot when desired, maybe when it’s angry since it had to do too many groceries 😉
The idea of creating this Tesla Bot was first mentioned at the latest AI Day of Tesla. During this interesting event, several developers and engineers talked about the newest developments of AI and their applications for the Tesla products. For example, the new Dojo Super Computer that will improve the ‘Full Self-Driving’ (FSD) system of Tesla and the novel Tesla Chip were addressed. At the end of this event, Elon Musk introduced the described Tesla Bot and showed how the first prototype of the bot will look like (Alamalhodaei & Bellan, 2021).
It is expected that the prototype of this bot can also help with working on the neural networks for Tesla cars and the Dojo Super Computer. This computer facilitates machine learning amongst the neural networks of Tesla cars and pushes out new updates to the fleet whenever needed. The Dojo Super Computer works on the new, inhouse developed D1 chip with astonishing features. (Alamalhodaei & Bellan, 2021; Tesla.com, n.d.). The AI software available in Tesla cars will thus be trained by the Dojo Super Computer, and Tesla hopes to expand the usage of this technology to other sectors and even to other carmakers.
The development of the Tesla Bot is taken quite seriously, since vacancies for the Tesla Bot as a Test Engineer are posted online, see the vacancy here (Wilman, 2021). On the other hand, Musk suggests that the AI technology is highly dangerous for humanity given its quick development, what creates an ethical issue around this subject that must be taken into account (Kelvey, 2021).
Although it’s unclear if this will become a disruptive innovation as described by Christensen, Raynor & McDonald (2015), it will for sure have a disruptive impact on multiple industries. The Tesla Bot does focus on a new market of nonconsumers and it addresses the inferior need for free time that spreads out over multiple sectors; the household industry, grocery delivery, the construction sector and their related services can all become obsolete when the Tesla Bot will improve and run smoothly in the upcoming years (Kelvey, 2021).
References
Image Credits: https://cdn.businessinsider.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/611f13760fbf9e0018e886b4.png
Alamalhodaei, A. & Bellan, R. (2021, August 20). Top four highlights of Elon Musk’s Tesla AI Day. TechCrunch. Retrieved on 11-09-2021 at https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/19/top-five-highlights-of-elon-musks-tesla-ai-day/?guccounter=1
Christensen, C. M., Raynor, M. E., & McDonald, R. (2015). What Is Disruptive Innovation?. Harvard Business Review, 93(12), 44-53.
Kelvey, J. (2021, August 21). Elon Musk, who sees A.I. as a “risk” to human existence, proposes A.I. robot. Inverse. Retrieved on 12-09-2021 at https://www.inverse.com/science/tesla-bot
Tesla.com (n.d.). Artificial Intelligence & Autopilot. Retrieved on 09-09-2021 at https://www.tesla.com/AI
Wilman, D. (2021, August 31). Tesla is serieus over de Tesla Bot en zoekt personeel die hem kan bouwen in Texas – maar eind 2022 voor het prototype lijkt zeer optimistisch. Business Insider. Retrieved on 12-09-2021 at https://www.businessinsider.nl/tesla-bot-elon-musk-vacatures/
This is so cool! I look forward to having a personal robot to help me with manual and repetitive tasks in the future. It would make my life much easier. Although I do not think the bot will be able to hurt or kill me, if we make sure it is unable to do so through its internal code there is no need to worry about this. Great article and references!
Very interesting blog as I never heard of the ‘Tesla Bot’ before. Even though it would definitely make my life easier as it takes manual and repetitive tasks away from my to-do list, I am still unsure whether I would completely trust a robotic personal assistant. I consider myself rather skeptical regarding some AI developments, such as this example. However, I am still very looking forward to the development of this process and its first prototypes. So, thanks for sharing this innovation!
Nice article and good resources. Very funny that after thousands of years, an extra family member joins the living room 🙂 I agree that AI will have an disruptive impact on many different industries. However, I doubt if this is good for the human being. We have already become a bit lazy due to all the technological developments and this will, and this bot will ensure that less will be done by humans themselves. I don’t know if I would ever use this bot, since I have my questions about the safety of this robot.
Wow very interesting post Joy! The development of robots is moving very fast these days. I have always been very fascinated by voice assistants, for example, Google & Siri. I also find it very interesting to follow the development around this topic. However, I had never heard of this concept. How much easier this would make life, leaving all the cleaning chores to the robot haha. I think it’s just going to take a while before I really trust a robot completely. I hope to read more from you soon!
Elon Musk seems to dominate a lot of blogs on this website (same for me ;)), but that is probably because he is that one of a thousand in a certain generation with his innovations and several companies.
What you are writing reminds me of ‘technological singularity’, a term that describes an hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable. This has to do with the self-learning capabilities of advanced AI. Elon Musk has mentioned in the past that full artificial intelligence could result in human extinction…
In theory you can see that it could be possible. However, it is not given that AI will ever get to the point of human intelligence. Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft has said human progress in the field of AI will likely diminish, as growth of complexity eventually becomes self-limiting (law of diminishing returns).
Interesting read Joy!