Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, recently shared a video on the social media platform X in which the Optimus robot folds a t-shirt. What do we actually know about this humanoid robot developed by Tesla?
The video, shared by Musk on X, appears at first glance to show the Optimus robot autonomously folding a t-shirt.
The reality behind the video, however, turns out not to be entirely true. Shortly after the video appeared, Musk posted a follow-up message in which he noted that Optimus does not yet perform this action autonomously. The goal, however, is to make it fully autonomous in various environments in the future.
In the video, an extra hand briefly appears on the right side of the frame. This hand seems to mimic the movements of Optimus's hand exactly. Some X users speculate that a person off-camera is controlling Optimus's movements, which is a common method for training robots by imitating human actions.
What is Optimus? Optimus is a humanoid robot, a concept version of which appeared in August 2021 during a Tesla AI event, then known as 'Tesla Bot'. In September 2022, Tesla unveiled the first prototypes of Optimus during the AI Day event, where two models were present. One model could walk independently, while the other could move its arms.
Optimus impressed again in September 2023 with a video showing new activities, such as sorting blocks and assuming yoga poses. On December 13, Tesla once again shared a video on X, this time of the second generation of Optimus, which could walk, dance and even cook an egg.
A general-purpose robot Tesla positions Optimus as a robot for 'general use', intended to take over unsafe, repetitive and boring tasks from humans. These tasks range from household activities such as cooking and mowing the lawn to industrial tasks such as assembly and packaging.
The development of this robot is part of Musk's goal to automate all human physical labor, with the expectation that Optimus will help increase production at Tesla. Musk considers Optimus crucial to transforming Tesla into a company worth 10 trillion dollars.
Specifications Some of the known technical specifications of Optimus include:
- Height: 177 cm
- Total weight: 73 kg
- Maximum payload: 20 kg
- Maximum lifting capacity: 68 kg
- Maximum speed: 8 km per hour
- Battery: Lithium battery with 2.3 kWh
- Battery life: approximately 8 hours
No official launch date has yet been announced for Optimus, but the price of the robot is estimated to be less than 20,000 US dollars.