Elon Musk reveals more details about the Tesla robot, sees people gifting it to elderly parents

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed more details about Tesla Optimus, the company’s upcoming humanoid robot, and how he sees the product rolling out over the next decade.

Over the past few years, Musk has gotten pretty good with the Chinese government.

In a country known for its protectionism, the CEO managed to create for Tesla the first car factory in China that is wholly owned by a foreign automaker.

He also frequently praises the country’s engineering and scientific prowess, while limiting his criticism of China’s authoritarian regime.

Now, in another example of Musk getting cozy with China, the CEO has been invited to publish a column in the official publication of the Cyberspace Administration of China. The government agency has broad powers in China to oversee internet and data security.

In a column titled “Faith in Technology for a Better Future,” Musk reiterated his goals for SpaceX to enable humanity to become multiplanetary and Tesla to accelerate the emergence of sustainable energy.

Interestingly, Musk also wrote an entire chapter about Tesla Optimus, the company’s humanoid robot project. This was recently stated by the general director the robot project became a top priority at Teslaand shows how much time he spent on it in a new column.

Here is the relevant part of the version translated into English China’s state media Beijing Channel:

Today’s cars are increasingly like intelligent robots on wheels connected to the Internet. In fact, in addition to cars, humanoid robots are also becoming a reality: in 2021, Tesla launched a universal humanoid robot (Tesla Bot). The height and weight of the Tesla Bot is close to the height and weight of an adult, it can carry or pick up heavy objects, walk with quick small steps, and the screen on the front is an interactive interface to communicate with people. You may be wondering why we designed this robot with legs. Because human society is based on the interaction of a two-legged humanoid with two hands and ten fingers. So if we want a robot to adapt to its environment and be able to do what humans do, it needs to be roughly the same size, shape and capabilities as a human.

Tesla bots are originally designed to replace humans in repetitive, boring and dangerous tasks. But they are expected to serve millions of families, such as cooking, mowing lawns and caring for the elderly.

Achieving this goal requires that robots evolve to be intelligent enough and that we have the ability to mass produce robots. Our “four-wheeled robots” – cars – have changed the way people travel and even live. Once we solve the problem of driverless cars (i.e. AI in the real world), we will be able to extend AI technology to humanoid robots, which will have much wider applications than cars.

This year, we plan to launch the first prototype of the humanoid robot and focus on improving the intelligence of this robot and solving the problem of large-scale production. After that, the utility of humanoid robots will increase every year as production increases and costs fall. In the future, a home robot may be cheaper than a car. Perhaps in less than ten years, people will be able to buy their parents a robot as a birthday present.

We can foresee that thanks to the power of robots, we will create an era of extraordinary abundance of goods and services, where everyone will be able to live in abundance. Perhaps the only deficit that will exist in the future is that we must create ourselves as humans.

In the article, Musk makes it clear that Tesla plans to go beyond industrial work and use it in homes to do household chores and even care for the elderly.

Tesla is expected On September 30, he will present the first working prototype of his humanoid robot on his Tesla AI Day 2.

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