Tesla has unveiled its Optimus humanoid robot at Artificial Intelligence Day 2022 on Friday, and Elon Musk believes it will be able to bring it to market for “less than €20,000”.
As expected, the event kicked off with Tesla presenting a working prototype of its humanoid robot – a project that was first made public at Tesla’s Artificial Intelligence Day in 2021. Two prototypes were unveiled during the event.
Tesla started by introducing Bumble C, which is the first version of the robot, and it was developed with a semi-actuator. It served as a test model for Tesla’s first robot which was developed with the company’s own parts.
The robot didn’t actually do anything impressive when it came on stage, but it was able to walk around and wave to the crowd. Tesla showed several videos of the robot performing several tasks in a controlled environment to demonstrate several levels of utility it offers.
The automaker also showed the robot performing a task at a workstation at its Fremont factory. But after the Bumble C, Tesla brought the first-generation Optimus robot to the scene.
The reason Tesla didn’t kick off the event with it and show an earlier, rougher prototype is that they hadn’t actually gotten the new robot to walk yet.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the new robot should be able to walk within weeks, but he wanted to show it off at yesterday’s event because it looks so close to the version that will go into production. .
Even this robot couldn’t do much on stage except wave to the crowd, and had to be carried by Tesla workers.
Musk stated that this version was equipped with the actuators, battery pack and power electronics designed by Tesla.