Elon Musk reveals Tesla’s plans to create a humanoid robot



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Elon Musk has revealed Tesla’s plans to build a prototype humanoid robot by next year.

Company CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that Tesla will build a human-like robot called the Tesla Bot.

“We’re also pretty good with sensors and batteries, and we’ll probably have a prototype next year that looks like this,” Musk added, referring to someone wearing a suit designed to look like a Tesla robot. Musk noted that the actor was not a real robot, but that “a real Tesla Bot would be.”

The announcement came on the sidelines of Artificial Intelligence Day, a series of technical conferences hosted by Tesla in California to recruit talent in machine learning.

Elon Musk explains the Tesla Bot project.

Elon Musk explains the Tesla Bot project.

The Tesla Bot is an example of Musk’s showmanship, announcing that Tesla is working on exciting products planned for years to come, energizing supporters including employees, customers and investors. Often, these announcements do not occur on schedule.

For example, at the “Autonomy Day” event in April 2019, Musk said the company will have 1 million “robotaxis” or autonomous taxis on the road in 2020. But nowhere does that show. In October 2016, Musk hosted an event behind Universal Studios in Los Angeles to showcase a product he called the Solar Roof. Turns out the solar tiles on display are just a concept, CNBC notes.

Reduce labor costs

Musk said that if robots work and can perform repetitive tasks that only humans can do today, they have a chance to transform the global economy by lowering labor costs. However, Musk warned that the robot “might not work” at first.

“It’s supposed to be user-friendly, of course, and navigate a human world, eliminating dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks.”

Musk also said the robot, named “Optimus,” relies on the same chips and sensors that Tesla cars use for autonomous driving functionality. He noted that he was five feet eight inches tall and had a screen for useful information.

Tesla robot

Tesla robot

Slides released by Tesla on Thursday show that automated driving cameras will be installed in the robot’s head. Musk said he could run 5 miles per hour.

He added that the company is developing many of the computers needed by robots, so it makes sense that Tesla would build its own.

“He should be able to, you know, go to the store and do the grocery shopping, stuff like that,” Musk said.

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