Optimus, has been made by no less than Elon Musk himself. The future of robotics is here. As Musk took center stage at the “We, Robot” event this October 2024, held in Tesla’s headquarters, all eyes were glued on him as he introduced his latest brainchild: one highly advanced personal assistant touted to change everyday tasks.
Musk revealed a very ambitious vision for the event: Optimus is a robot designed for nearly every task that is seamlessly done in homes, according to him. He declared Optimus an “ultimate personal assistant” supposed to perform tasks from babysitting and walking dogs to carrying groceries and even light social interactions.
“Imagine a future where you come home, and Optimus has already walked your dog, tidied up your house, and prepped dinner,” Musk said. “That’s what we’re aiming for-a robot that genuinely makes one’s life easier with respect to tasks.
Optimus stands approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs approximately 125 pounds. Optimus has sleek lines to its build, emulating human proportions for maximum smooth interaction in human environments.
The robot runs on Tesla’s most advanced AI systems, much like the tech used in the firm’s autonomous vehicles. Equipped with sensors, cameras, and powerful actuators, Optimus can find its way through complex environments around it, recognize objects, and also interact with human beings autonomously. The robot is also fully rechargeable and designed to work for hours without human intervention.
But probably the most striking feature of Optimus is how cheap it is. Musk said the robot would cost between $20,000 and $30,000 when it goes into mass production, hence able to reach many households. For such an advanced robot, such a price is considered to be a breakthrough.
The live demonstrations of what Optimus could do were astonishing to the audience present. Before the audience, the robot waved its arms, kept various objects in an elegant hold, and even played simple games with someone present in the audience, all designed to demonstrate balance and reaction. Tesla’s engineers drove home intuitive mechanisms of the device-the so-called user controls the robot either through voice commands or a smartphone app.
As Musk unveiled, Tesla is planning to mass-produce millions of Optimus units targeting industries. “We think this robot is going to completely change the way households function and also is particularly useful for industries that rely on a lot of human labor, like warehouses and retail,” Musk said. According to Tesla, Optimus is one of the most important products in efforts to drive down costs of services around the world where many activities require substantial human labor.
The unveiling of Optimus earned a broad range of responses from those in attendance and those observing online. “It’s like living science fiction,” more than one attendee and online commenter alike echoed. A much sleeker design would put Optimus more in the company of movie bots from I, Robot and Ex Machina, though perhaps sans the dystopian subtext-at least for now.
Of course, not everyone looks at this without raising an eyebrow. Critics were quick to point out the possibility of heavy job displacement, especially in fields requiring a great deal of manual labor. Certain workers in warehousing, retail, and even domestic services were concerned about the number of jobs that robots like Optimus could lose when companies embrace the automation technology. However, Tesla remains hopeful that the technology will open fresh avenues for employment in the field of robotics maintenance and AI development.
Assuming Tesla continues to refine and develop Optimus, the future can almost be assured to be promising-and possibly disruptive. This could greatly alter people’s approach to work and leisure and generally to everyday routines once the humanoid robots start their mass adoption both in homes and workplaces. As amazing as Optimus’ capabilities sound, the implications for greater society-and most specifically, for jobs-remain hotly debated.
