It can fondle eggs now.
Optimus Prime
Tesla has unveiled its second-generation Optimus humanoid robot, a marked improvement over the stiff android that awkwardly shuffled across the stage at the EV maker’s AI event last year.
In a video shared on Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s social media network X, Tesla’s Optimus Gen 2 can be seen flexing its individual fingers and hands, walking around the company’s factory halls, doing squats, and picking up eggs.
The video concludes with two of the robots raising their hands,while club music plays in a demonstration of the robot’s very Musk-esque dance moves.
While plenty of questions remain about the robot’s real-world capabilities and how the company is planning to integrate AI tech as promised, it’s a noticeable upgrade over what the company has previously shown off. But whether any of these humanoid robots will be able to replace human workers any time soon remains to be seen.
Walking on Eggshells
According to the company, Optimus Gen 2 can walk 30 percent faster than its predecessor and is 22 pounds lighter as well. The company has seemingly put a heavy focus on the robot’s dextrous hands, which feature tactile sensors on each fingertip, allowing it to carefully handle objects.
To Musk, it’s an exceedingly important project for the carmaker. During a Telsa Bot update for shareholders in May, Musk claimed that the “Optimus stuff is extremely underrated” and that he was confident in predicting that the robot would account for a “majority of Tesla’s long-term value.”
If Musk’s predictions are anything to go by — as a reminder, his word means close to nothing — Optimus could hit a price of less than $20,000 each and will soon start replacing production staff at the carmaker’s factories.
But considering Tesla still has a lot to prove when it comes to the actual usefulness of its dextrous robot, we’re not expecting these robots to take over any time soon, if ever.
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