Elon Musk announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos that Tesla plans to sell its Optimus humanoid robot to the public by the end of next year. The announcement quickly grabbed attention, even though Musk is well known for setting bold timelines that rarely happen on time. Optimus is designed to be a general-purpose humanoid robot, capable of performing the same tasks humans can.
As usual, Musk gave himself a way out if the robots don’t start rolling out the assembly line in 2027, saying they will only be released when Tesla is sure they are very reliable, very safe, and can do a lot of things.
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Musk said the robots will only be released when Tesla is “confident that it’s very high reliability, very high safety and the range of functionality is also very high.” He claimed the robots are already doing simple tasks inside Tesla factories, although there is no evidence to confirm this.
Musk earlier said Optimus could be ready for commercial use in 2026, which is this year, and well, that is not gonna happen. Also, the program head of the project, Milan Kovac, recently left the company. Interestingly, Tesla’s stock rose more than three percent after Musk’s announcement, reports Engadget.
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Musk also spoke about Tesla’s Cybercab, saying production would begin in April with a goal of making two million units per year. While this plan seems more realistic than humanoid robots, questions remain about demand, since the Cybercab seats only two people and has no steering wheel.
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