At Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on Thursday, CEO Elon Musk announced the upcoming Cybercab robotaxi and 20-seater, self-driving Robovan, but the grand finale was a line of Optimus robots.
Though Musk claimed that the humanoid robot was “the biggest product of any kind, ever,” new reports show that the futuristic robots were remotely controlled by humans — and not as autonomous as they were pitched.
Musk said the $20,000 to $30,000 robot could perform household tasks like mowing lawns and getting groceries. One analyst estimated that every household would have one in the next three years.
Related: Elon Musk Announces the ‘Cybercab’ and Other Surprises at Tesla’s ‘We, Robot’ Event. Here’s What to Know.
“Whatever you can think of, it will do,” Musk said.
Tesla’s Optimus robots walked out into the crowd after the new Robovan reveal. It will be able to “babysit your kids, walk your dog,” Elon Musk said
byu/Soloflow786 inrobotics
However, when one event attendee asked an Optimus robot if it was being remote-controlled, the robot said, “Today, I am assisted by a human. I’m not yet fully autonomous.”
I asked the bartending Optimus if he was being remote controlled. I believe he essentially confirmed it. pic.twitter.com/WlGyuswWpI
— zhen (@zhen9436) October 11, 2024
Humans appeared to be helping the Optimus robots perform tasks at the event. Electrek spotted that each robot had a Tesla employee with a signaling device nearby.
Tesla first announced plans to venture into autonomous robots in 2021; Musk has since said that Optimus could take Tesla to a $25 trillion market capitalization. Tesla was at a $700 billion market cap at the time of writing.
Critics wrote that the robots deserved to be called a “parlor trick” and that Tesla “misled millions” who didn’t know the bots were being operated by humans.
Not wholly AI? Not at all AI.
Totally worthy to celebrate low latency remote control but totally dishonest to demo these as autonomous robots—call it the parlor trick it is. https://t.co/EdXuSO8KWA
— Josh Wolfe (@wolfejosh) October 11, 2024
Tesla misled millions of people who watched their livestream of the Tesla Robotaxi event.
It wasn’t until afterwards that I watched people’s videos of the event that I realized the Tesla Bots were being controlled by humans.
Tesla Bot is basically like FSD (supervised). But I… pic.twitter.com/7M8Mf7wSLs
— Scaremy Pumpkins ? (@jeremyjudkins_) October 12, 2024
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Wedbush analyst Dan Ives thought the event was “jaw-dropping” and “historical” and was optimistic about the robots. Tesla has yet to respond to reports of the AI being remotely assisted.
