Elon Musk claimed this week that Tesla’s humanoid robots will be “the biggest product of any kind ever” – sparking a lively debate about when and if he will get around to putting a robot in every home.
The walking, talking Optimus robots stole the show during a Thursday night event in Los Angeles to unveil the company’s Cybercar, a self-driving taxi.
The nearly 6-meter-tall robots danced on stage to techno music, served fruit cocktails and played rock, paper, scissors.
Musk said the robots could “basically do anything you want” — like mowing your lawn, cleaning the kitchen after dinner, looking after your kids or just being a friend — and would cost less than a car, between $20,000 and $30,000 in the long run.
Musk was tight-lipped about the timing on Thursday, but earlier this year he said Tesla could be able to sell humanoid robots by the end of 2025.
However, experts disagree on whether Musk will be able to overcome many of the robot bottlenecks in just a few years.
Dev Nag, CEO of QueryPal, a support automation company that uses artificial intelligence, said it will likely be five or more years before consumers see Optimus robots in their homes.
“The robot still faces challenges in areas such as stable walking on uneven terrain, lasting all day on a single battery charge, and safely navigating around people and pets – a more acute problem than it might seem,” he said. Nag for The Post.
“While Musk is known for his ambitious timelines, most experts believe that Optimus will first prove itself in factories and warehouses before it is ready for home use,” he said.
That’s despite the dazzling abilities the Optimus robots displayed on Thursday night.
“How’s everyone doing?” a bartending bot wearing a cowboy hat and apron beckoned to guests, with a hint of a Texas drawl.
When a customer asked for a watermelon-flavored drink, the cow-bot double-checked the order: “A watermelon? “Of course you can!”
Agnieszka Pilat, a robotics artist who works closely with Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics, agreed that getting robots out in five years is “very optimistic.”
The robots will likely be available first to billionaires and other high-status individuals within five years, but it will take about a decade for a full retail rollout, according to Pilat.
“Mass adoption will take time because they are very expensive. They will not settle. The software is complicated and the hardware is complicated,” Pilat told The Post. “Where are the flying cars?”
On the other hand, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives — who said he spoke with an Optimus robot for more than an hour at Thursday night’s event in Hollywood — is about as optimistic as Musk.
He expects robots to be in households by 2027.
The robots unveiled Thursday night were completely “non-programmatic” and on track to be “fully autonomous,” Ives told The Post.
“What Tesla revealed last night was surprising,” he said. “Last night, I believe, was a historic event.”
The Optimus bots were much more advanced than techies expected after Musk introduced his “Tesla bot” in 2021 — a man who danced on stage in a robot suit — and showed off a prototype in 2022 that had to be held by a stand.
Shawn DuBravac, CEO at the Avrio Institute, which helps companies predict technological change, said home robots will eventually become as common as washing machines and dishwashers.
But he agrees with other experts that there are many hurdles beyond the price point that Musk still needs to overcome.
“They can handle simple tasks now, but full autonomy for complex household chores is still some time away,” DuBravac told The Post. “What makes other household robots, like washing machines and dishwashers, successful is their ability to handle discrete tasks almost flawlessly every time.”
Optimus can also expect to face legal hurdles when it comes to security standards, data privacy and liability in the event of malfunction, DuBravac said.
Musk’s Tesla is under “a very bright center,” Ives admits. “If there is an incident with a robot, it will be heavily scrutinized.”
Optimus may also face social and cultural challenges when it comes to widespread adoption, experts said. But Ives argued that tech giants have overcome those hurdles before.
“In 2007, people saw the concept of smartphones as extraordinary,” Ives told The Post. “Now, look where we are today.”
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