Tesla presents its first working prototype of Robot Optimus
This time, it is no longer a disguised man. At his Tesla AI Day 2022 talk, Elon Musk showed off a real Optimus robot that can walk (slowly) in a straight line, change direction, and do some upper-body movements, including arms. We’re still a long way from the humanoid robot fantasy Musk promised us a year ago, but in such a short time between the initial announcement and today, what Tesla has just achieved looks like a technological feat. . Note that Optimus is not connected to any cable, which proves that Tesla is finally making good progress on the subject.
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Aware despite everything of the risk of disappointment for some observers – Elon Musk’s promises are only binding… you know the rest -, the visionary entrepreneur recalled that Optimus remained a development platform for the moment, and that much remained to be done to achieve version 1.0 of the cousin of C-3PO. The visible innards of the machine are certainly less desirable than the sleek design of the project presented in 2021, but this “rough formwork” aspect paradoxically reassures about the seriousness with which Tesla approaches the robotics sector, without ever rounding off the corners here ( which was not the case for the Optimus announcement conference).
Tesla Bot walking progress – modeled inside Autopilot sim pic.twitter.com/WCrXDFel3t
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A second prototype a little more “dressed” was also presented, but the latter could not walk alone and ultimately seemed even less successful. Tesla is starting from afar, and the inevitable comparison with the agile robots of Boston Dynamics turns out to be particularly cruel here. This severe but fair observation should not make us forget that robotics is a long-term issue, and that the real realization of the objective fantasized by Musk will probably not take shape for at least twenty years. As for Tesla’s goal of selling millions of such robots at a price of $20,000 each, the step is even higher… and even further.
The presentation of Optimus also annoyed for a completely different reason than its still largely perfectible technology: many analysts have indeed estimated that the humanoid robot was used by Elon Musk as a means of diverting attention from the real problems. Tesla is indeed under investigation by the American regulator and is struggling to deliver the truly autonomous electric car.
