“The future should look like the future”, CEO Elon Musk said at the Tesla “We Robot”special event held in Burbank, California, earlier this week. Sure enough, Tesla’s much-anticipated autonomous robotaxi, the Cybercab, and its large-van counterpart, the Cybervan,seemedstraight out of celebrated sci-fi movies.But as the name of the event hinted at, a vision of the future would not be complete without robots: Several of the Optimus Gen 2, Tesla’s latest version of humanoid-like robot, were found serving drinks, holding conversations with guests, and even dancing at the event.Tesla has recentlypitchedthe Optimus as a potential replacement for factory workers in China and elsewhere. Muskpreviously saidhe expects the Optimus to start working at Tesla factories in 2025 and to be available to other firms in 2026.
Yet, at the event, the Tesla boss revealed his expanded vision of a household robot that can do “everything you want: Babysit your kid, walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend, serve drinks”.He also gave a closer estimate of the robot’s price tag: Once produced “at scale,” Optimus should cost somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000. Musk had previously said the robot’s price would be about half that of a car.
Staying true to his sci-fi vision, the Tesla CEO referred to Optimus as a cross between R2D2 and C-3PO, thefamous droidsfrom the Star Wars film series.
Ever since thefirst generationof the Optimus was revealed in 2022, Tesla has emphasized the continuity between its cars and the robot. “Everything that we’ve developed for our cars — the battery power’s electronics, the advanced motor’s gearboxes, the software, the AI inference computer — it all actually applies to a humanoid robot,” Musk said at the event. “A robot with arms and legs, instead of a robot with wheels.”
Tesla would not be the first to offer a domestic robot on the market. Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics has already commercialized a home service-type robot calledSpotwith a hefty price tag of $74,500. BMW and Open AI are backing robots made byFigure, a California-based company. Meanwhile, Nvidia is developingProject GR00Tto also deliver humanoid robots.Earlier this year, Goldman Sachsforecastthat the annual global market for humanoid robots could reach $38 billion by 2035, with robot shipments of 1.4 million units both for industrial and consumer applications. It also said that robots could become more affordable as their manufacturing cost has been decreasing more than expected — leading to faster commercialization.
