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Tesla is building a robot named Optimus

By T.K. Randall
August 21, 2021 · Comment icon 10 comments

What could possibly go wrong ? Image Credit: Tesla
Elon Musk's electric car company has branched out into developing autonomous, humanoid robots.
In news that is not in the slightest bit disconcerting, Musk has revealed that the robot - named Optimus - will respond to voice commands and is being designed to help "eliminate dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks" - presumably with applications both at home and in the workplace.

Incorporating the autonomous driving technologies that Tesla has developed for its electric cars, Optimus will reportedly be 173 centimetres tall and will weigh in at 57 kilograms.

It will be powered by 40 electromechanical actuators and will also feature a screen on its face.

Capable of carrying loads of up to 20kg, a prototype is expected to be revealed next year.
According to Musk, however, it has been designed in such a way so that a human can overpower it without much difficulty, "just in case" it gets any ideas about world domination.

"Tesla is arguably the world's biggest robotics company because our cars are like semi-sentient robots on wheels," he said. "It kind of makes sense to put that onto a humanoid form. We're also quite good at sensors and batteries and actuators."

Could this be the beginning of the robot revolution or will Optimus be little more than a gimmick for those with deep pockets ?

Looks like we won't have to wait long to find out.

Source: New Scientist | Comments (10)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by third_eye 3 years ago
"...labour shortages..." ~
Comment icon #2 Posted by MissJatti 3 years ago
FFS, SMH, First sort out your self driven tesla cars. Since it has many problems technically issues and bugs. And since that one Tesla car decided to run over school kids at a school, it needs the 3 laws/rules.. as follows:- 1 – A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2 – A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3 – A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.  
Comment icon #3 Posted by jethrofloyd 3 years ago
Robocop in Musk's version.
Comment icon #4 Posted by Stiff 3 years ago
It appears that "that one Tesla" didn't decide to run over school kids at a school. From the BBC report:      "The driver of the Tesla, a 47-year-old woman, was uninjured in the collision." Conclusions. Best not to be jumped at.
Comment icon #5 Posted by jeem 3 years ago
Since this came from Elon Musk rest assured it is way overhyped and years away from actually doing boring, repetitious and dangerous task.
Comment icon #6 Posted by Still Waters 3 years ago
Update: Musk: Robots to be bigger business than Tesla cars This week, Mr Musk told investors the humanoid robot's first application would be at a Tesla plant "moving parts around the factory, or something like that". But in the future, he sees it helping solve labour shortages. And earlier this week, he tweeted: "Tesla AI might play a role in AGI [artificial general intelligence], given that it trains against the outside world, especially with the advent of Optimus". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60154782
Comment icon #7 Posted by moonman 3 years ago
Pipe dreams from an out of touch billionaire. Of course he wants robots to replace the work force - he hates paying them.
Comment icon #8 Posted by Tatetopa 3 years ago
US has Big Dog, China has the OX both 4 legged robots designed to be weaponized.  Now Musk wants a robot to do menial tasks. We have 7 billion people on this planet and labor shortages? More likely replacing people with robots takes labor out of the equation, it all becomes capital. The few dozen people on earth that have a couple of hundred billion dollars in capital then could solve all of their labor problems with robots.  Maybe they still need a few brainy employees, but AI could take a dent out of that too.  So what do these 7 billion people do?  And how do they get the money to buy t... [More]
Comment icon #9 Posted by Autistocrates 2 years ago
He seems to already have them secretly implanted in his products
Comment icon #10 Posted by spartan max2 2 years ago
Sex robots lol


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