Tesla CEO Elon Musk has unveiled plans to deploy thousands of Optimus humanoid robots in Tesla factories by 2025. This ambitious initiative marks a significant step towards increased automation and efficiency in the production of electric vehicles.
Elon Musk says there are currently two Optimus robots working at Tesla and by 2025 there will be up to a few thousand robots working at the factory PIC.TWITTER.COM/AJCHMIRZTF
— Tsarathustra (@tsarnick) JUNE 14, 2024
The meeting featured new footage of Optimus walking steadily and performing tasks autonomously in a Tesla factory. The robot was seen placing battery cells into crates with precision, demonstrating the significant advancements made since its initial reveal. Musk proudly remarked,
“We’ve made a massive amount of progress with Optimus in a short period, from someone pretending to be a robot dancing in a suit to a pretty hodge-podgy robot to a robot that is doing useful tasks in the factory today.”
As the video shows, Musk said two Optimus robots work furiously at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, doing battery cells. But several more are “just cruising around our offices in Palo Alto,” he said, indicating how far the machines have proliferated throughout the company.
In a few years, Musk envisions “over a thousand, maybe a few thousand” Optimus robots at Tesla’s facilities. Scaled-up employment of this magnitude will create a face change in Tesla‘s manufacturing. The robots will be tasked with everything from material handling to assembly, improving productivity and helping reduce the cost of production.
What makes the Tesla Optimus robots unique, unlike most industrial robots built for specific purposes, is their classically humanoid design on full display, using their arms, hands, legs, and central computer chest. This allows the robots to be more versatile in handling various tasks like humans with appreciated levels of dexterity.
Musk even predicted the humanoid robots-to-human ratio could be over 1: 1, with Tesla at the forefront of this technological advance. He went so far as to suggest that Tesla manufacture each Optimus for $10,000 and retail it for $20,000 to generate demand – which he projects to be one billion humanoid robots annually. Even cornering 10% of the market would eventually leave room for profit to be as high as $1 trillion.
Optimus robots boast impressive capabilities, including:
28 Structural Actuators: These allow for human-like movement.Six-Actuator Hands with 11 Degrees of Freedom: While not quite as agile as human hands, arms, and step-by-step rehearsed actuation of time-varying control input, such enables a wide range of accuracy-a broad range useful also for manipulation.
2.3 kWh Battery Pack: The power source allows the robots to run for a day without recharging.
Advanced Sensing Capabilities: The sensors in the robot’s hands will guide it where it is and how to hold something.
Enhanced Strength: Metal tendons give added strength so the robots can do heavy-duty work.”
Though this robot news is exciting, with detachment prospects of them seeing wide deployment, it should be taken with cautious optimism. This is primarily because of several timelines for some of their past ambitious projects Musk has always been optimistic. However, there is no underestimation of the impact such robots will eventually have on how manufacturing takes place at Tesla.
These Optimus will change the force, finally, dramatically, in the Tesla workforce. When robot-driven machines and repetitive jobs become commonplace, the nature of the role tends to be very different in the factories, as well as the skill sets. Tesla may have to invest in retraining to help workers shift into new roles that involve much more in the operation and maintenance of these high-tech machines than in performing repetitive or awkward tasks.
Optimus robots are also expected to make workplaces much safer by undertaking dangerous or physically demanding work, thus decreasing the possibility of accidents.
The impact will be mainly made by using Optimus, which, if deployed, will likely impact Tesla’s cost structure and profitability significantly. Key benefits include:
Reduced Labor Costs: Robots do not receive wages, benefits, or other labor costs.
Increased Productivity: Robots can run day and night, thus significantly boosting the production output.
Decreased Material Waste: Robots can reduce material waste and defects with precision and consistency.
Lower Maintenance Costs: Robots generally require less maintenance than human workers, reducing production downtime. These, together, could expand Tesla’s profit margins, so it has either stochastically rationalized prices or reinvested in savings as more innovative technology. Primed for the future, the Optimus robots are being deployed in anticipation of 2025 to significantly move Tesla into a future where work is much more automated and will considerably reduce the human interventions necessary for production.
Still not devoid of challenges, massive benefits can be accrued. Starting with better productivity and safety, the Optimus robot offers money-saving opportunities, transforming Tesla’s manufacturing and making Tesla the gold standard for other automobile manufacturers to emulate.
Elon Musk‘s vision of a factory with humanoid robots is no longer a dream but a reality fast approaching. In this regard, Tesla’s trend of pushing its technology to limits is in line with the company’s, and the world could be a learning ground for this big project that is bound to change the face of modern manufacturing.
