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Optimus, Tesla’s new humanoid robot
BUSINESS & DEVELOPMENT
On September 30, at Tesla’s Artificial Intelligence Day in Silicon Valley, the latest generation of Optimus, the new robot prototype developed by the company of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, was presented. Optimus will have a height of 173 cm high, weigh around 57 kilos, and reach speeds of up to 8 km/h. Such characteristics would allow you to load and transport objects up to 20 kg.
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The way the robot will work will be through scopes, force transmission points, and electromechanical sensors distributed around the entire humanoid body, thereby ensuring movement and force in the arms and legs. Engineers involved in its development mention that the implementation of Optimus’ artificial intelligence does not start from scratch, since they have been based on the technology previously implemented in Tesla vehicles.
The first activities that robots will have to test their effectiveness and, above all, their reliability, will be to serve as auxiliaries in the production chains of the brand’s own cars. However, the main objective of Optimus will be to assist in performing household tasks such as watering plants, loading, and transporting objects, as well as any activity that can be fulfilled through the advanced artificial intelligence of the product. In the same way, the entrepreneur is interested in his robot being useful in dangerous, repetitive, or boring activities for humans. In the same sense, without forgetting the safety laws of robotics, Optimus will have its own third-party protection system, where the hardware can be deactivated even remotely, in case of representing a threat.
The business model articulated by Elon Musk is based on the mass production of androids so that their individual price is “less than a car”; each Optimus could cost about $20,000, he said. Based on this, the objective of this project is to become a mass product. As for its commercial launch, the date has not been set; the first concept image of the robot was presented in 2021, followed by the presentation of the development of its platform in February 2022. Although the android is currently in the development phase, its formal production and commercialization could begin until 2023.
