A year ago, the famed Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed his plans to build a Tesla robot. Although the initial “robot” at the 2021 AI-Day was just a man in a suit with silly dance moves, this time it’s the real deal.
So what? Robots are not something new. Are we just supposed to believe the real-life Tony Stark? Well, I am glad you asked!
Let’s first start by analyzing the Tesla robot, the so-called “Optimus” robot. Actually, Optimus is referred to as a “humanoid”, a robot with human-like characteristics. Besides the fact that Optimus can move, e.g. dancing and waving, it is supposed to do a lot more than that. The prototype shown on stage could simply move a little bit, but videos of the robot in action shows that it can carry objects in the Tesla factory and office.
Optimus is not just an over-engineered intern designed to pass coffee; it’s an autonomous machine designed to make an impact on many people’s lives. Musk predicts that the price of the Optimus humanoid could be less than $20,000 and be ready for mass production in 3-5 years. Its future tasks will include cooking, doing groceries and a general extra hand around the house. The Tesla CEO calls it the “most important product development we’re doing this year.”
However, the richest man in the world is not the only person concerned with designing human-like robots. Many other companies have been focussing on this for a long period of time. Research supports that 90% of human behavior is predictable and can be replicated by data-driven models. Thus, this predictable behavior can be acted out by robots. Big conglomerates like Toyota and Honda have both developed humanoid robots that perform complicated actions like shooting a basketball, which is much more than Optimus can do right now.
The world-famous, Hyundai-owned, Boston Dynamics, has made an advanced humanoid that can even do backflips and parkour. So far, the competition seems tough as the barriers of entry require highly specialized knowledge. The Boston Dynamics Group has been working on Robots since 1992, long before Tesla and its technologies were founded. Musk has made grant promises in the past, such as that the Tesla Model 3 would cost $35,000 whilst it’s now being sold for $46,990, or that the Cybertruck would be ready for purchase in 2019. What’s to say that this is not one of those unrealistic promises? Who’s to say that Xiaomi’s CyberOne humanoid won’t beat Musk’s humanoid to the market? Tesla argues that its the “world’s biggest robotics company, but we will have to wait to see how that’s going to play out.
Sources:
Ackerman, E., 2022. Xiaomi Builds a Humanoid Robot for Some Reason. [online] IEEE Spectrum. Available at: <https://spectrum.ieee.org/humanoid-robot-xiaomi-cyberone#toggle-gdpr> [Accessed 5 October 2022].
Bender, M., 2022. Competitors’ Bots Outshine Musk’s Own at Tesla A.I. Day. [online] The Daily Beast. Available at: <https://www.thedailybeast.com/competitors-bots-outshine-elon-musks-own-humanoid-robots-at-tesla-ai-day> [Accessed 5 October 2022].
Hawkins, A. and Shakir, U., 2022. Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveils prototype humanoid Optimus robot. [online] The Verge. Available at: <https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/30/23374729/tesla-bot-ai-day-robot-elon-musk-prototype-optimus-humanoid?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4> [Accessed 5 October 2022].
Lango, L., 2022. Optimus Underwhelmed, But Robots Are Still the Future. [online] InvestorPlace. Available at: <https://investorplace.com/hypergrowthinvesting/2022/10/optimus-underwhelmed-but-robots-are-still-the-future/> [Accessed 6 October 2022].
