On June 3, Elon Musk pushed back the date of Tesla AI Day to September 30. He has Explain that this delay was due to the presentation of a new Tesla project: the Optimus robot, a humanoid cyborg. Measuring 1.77 m for 56 kilos, presenting a body dressed in white and gray with a resplendent black face, like a “head-screen”Optimus is for the moment the consumer robot-assistant project that seems the most successful, despite the tests of the Chinese competitor Xiaomi.
Humanoid robots (or “robot butler”) will be, according to Elon Musk, the optimistic boss of Tesla, robots “grand public”. Initially intended for professional use limited to repetitive tasks, it seems that Elon Musk’s ambition for these cyborgs has changed: he envisions this humanoid as a butler for all. In the long term, Tesla would like to help consumers in their daily lives. According to Elon Musk, “The usefulness of humanoid robots will grow every year as production ramps up and costs come down.” For other artificial intelligence experts, the prognosis is not so idyllic, because the development of such a tool or assistant is not yet mature enough.
Even so, production of Tesla’s Optimus model could begin as early as 2023.
In addition, the Chinese company Xiaomi has also just unveiled its first humanoid robot: the CyberOne. By presenting it just a month before Tesla, Xiaomi seems to want to compete with the Optimus, but the performance of the Chinese competitor is not really there, as we mentioned in an article.