Elon Musk set to showcase Tesla's humanoid robot ‘Optimus’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s ambitious humanoid robot prototype is finally set to launch today at this year’s Tesla's "AI Day" event.

‘Humanoid robots’ have human characteristics, and these resemble humans in, both, behaviour and appearance and are used for safe load carrying, great efficiency, high accuracy and accomplish working less time. These robots can also be used for practical purposes including interacting with humans, experimental analysis, automation of production processes and other purposes.  

The robot dubbed ‘Optimus’ is expected to be the star of the AI show and the billionaire CEO betting big on its robot business told Reuters that “it will be worth more than its cars”.

In an interview in April, he said Tesla would have “interesting prototypes sometime this year” and “might have something useful next year” or “quite likely within two years.” He also said it would be “less than 10 years” before consumers would be able to buy their own Tesla Bot to help around the house and that the cost would eventually be “less than a car.”

Experts in robotics say that the key test for the robot is whether it can handle unexpected situations. This will be the skill that allows it to take on the burden of human work in Tesla’s factories. Musk had earlier promised that it would set it apart from the current generation of industrial robots, who can only move objects when their working space is mapped in advance.

Roboticist Henrik Christensen of the University of California San Diego told The Verge, “Building a walking robot is a relatively well-known problem, and companies such as Boston Dynamics have done it well.”

Another research robot unveiled in August 2022 was the CyberOne, built by Chinese tech giant Xiaomi also resembled Tesla’s Optimus prototype, believe experts. But based on a demo, it’s only capable of walking and waving, without being able to grasp things with its hands.

At the event, Musk is also expected to discuss Tesla's long-delayed self-driving technology too. In May, Musk said that the carmaker would be "worth basically zero" without achieving full self-driving capability, and it faces growing regulatory probes, as well as technological hurdles. 

"There will be lots of technical detail and cool hardware demos," Musk wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, adding the event was aimed at recruiting engineers.