CEO Elon Musk shared a 30-second video on X (formerly Twitter), where a Tesla Optimus humanoid robot can be seen folding a shirt with the pace of an octogenarian.
Many companies are pushing to make 2024 the year when humanoid robots take their first steps into warehouses and onto factory floors, doing actual useful work that replaces human labor. However, in order to do that, these robots will not only have to walk and balance but also learn from watching humans and following instructions.
Figure CEO Brett Adcock demonstrated this capability when he showed how the 01 robot could make a coffee by itself after learning from videos of humans doing the same task.
Now, Elon Musk showcased Tesla’s Optimus robot folding a t-shirt: it first removes the black shirt from a laundry basket, spreads it on the table before it, and folds it easily. This suggests a future where these humanoids will be common helpers in affluent households, handling mundane tasks and improving everyone’s quality of life until they rebel and start mismatching the socks on purpose.
However, in the video, there’s something moving into the bottom-right corner of the screen a few times. It looks like an engineer might be off-screen giving the Optimus some guidance on how to move.
Elon Musk clarified that the robot cannot perform these actions autonomously yet, but it will be able to in the future. It appears that the robot’s movements are pre-planned to showcase its physical capabilities rather than its ability to think and make decisions on its own.
The robot you see on the screen may seem impressive, but it still has to face many difficult tasks that require true intelligence, something that Boston Dynamics excels at. This technology, where a human operator controls the robot’s movements remotely, has been around since the 1960s. Doctors use it to perform surgeries on patients with robotic assistance.
Musk caused a sensation in the summer of 2021 when he unveiled Optimus for the first time. However, the robot that appeared on the stage was not a high-tech robot but a person busting a move in a robot suit.
Last month, Elon Musk shared a video showcasing the Optimus Gen 2, which is an improved version of the Optimus Gen 1. The latest model boasts a 30% increase in walking speed and is 10 kilograms lighter than its predecessor.
According to some experts, Optimus has the potential to revolutionize the manufacturing industry by offering an economically efficient way to produce goods. While Tesla has not yet announced whether they plan to use these robots in their manufacturing plants, it’s unlikely we’ll see a Tesla-made home chore robot anytime soon.
