Last month, Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla, said something surprising during a talk with investors. He said Tesla isn’t just a car company anymore. Now, it’s a company that makes robots and artificial intelligence (AI). The cars they make are just part of that bigger plan. So, how’s Tesla’s robot business going? Well, there’s a new video from the team at Optimus, and it shows their robot moving slowly.
Tesla shared this video on the official Optimus Twitter account. It’s a bit strange because the tweets from this account seem to be written as if the robot itself is talking. In the video, you can see the robot moving some cylinders around in an empty office. But it’s doing this very slowly and without much urgency. This makes you wonder, is a robot that looks like a human the best way to do these tasks?
In theory, having a robot that looks like a human might seem like a good idea. It can fit into existing factories and do the same jobs that people do. But when you look at what the Optimus robot is actually doing, you start to question if there might be better ways to do these tasks faster and more efficiently.
For example, in the video, the robot is moving cylinders around, probably to simulate moving battery cells. But instead of using a robot, a machine could be designed specifically for this task. This machine could move the cylinders faster and more precisely, without needing someone to control it.
The video also shows Tesla workers in black clothes and VR headsets controlling the robots. Tesla says they’re just training the robots, but it seems like a lot of effort to make a robot do one simple task.
Elon Musk believes that people will want to buy robots like Optimus for all kinds of tasks. But whether Optimus can prove its worth and justify Tesla’s high value remains to be seen.
