Elon Musk said people will be ‘blown away’ by Optimus robot that will be revealed at AI Day

Elon Musk unveiled a new teaser image of his company’s Optimus humanoid robot that will be fully revealed at the end of next month.

The tech mogul showed off a picture of robotic hands making a heart shape at the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Austin Thursday evening and touted a full reveal of Tesla Optimus at AI Day September 30. 

Few details are known about the robot, but Musk has said it would handle tasks that humans find boring or repetitive and could even serve as a companion.

‘AI Day, part two, I think people will be blown away,’ Musk said. ‘But that’s at the end of next month, so we’ll leave that – there’s gonna be a lot of cool stuff.’

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‘AI Day, part two, I think people will be blown away,’ Musk said. ‘But that’s at the end of next month, so we’ll leave that – there’s gonna be a lot of cool stuff.’

The Tesla bot, which would be 5’8 and weigh 125 pounds, is set to include the Autopilot computer used in the company’s electric cars, which will allow the humanoid to recognize real-world objects, although the robot will have its own customized sensors and actuators.

It will also be able to ‘deadlift’ up to 150 pounds, carry 45 pounds, walk 5 miles per hour and have human-like hands plus visual sensors giving it the ability to ‘see.’

‘[You can] talk to it and say, “Please pick up that bolt and attach it to a car with that wrench,” and it should be able to do that,’ Musk said last August about the robot. ‘”Please go to the store and get me the following groceries.” That kind of thing. I think we can do that.’

Tesla’s Autopilot cameras will be fitted in the front of the bot’s head and its inner-workings will be powered by the company’s Full Self-Driving computer. The bots will be apparently operate through Tesla’s Full Self-Driving computer interface, which is what’s in the Tesla Model 3, X, S, Y and Roadster. 

Few details are known about the robot, but Musk has said it would handle tasks that humans find boring or repetitive and could even serve as a companion

Previously released renderings have shown that it could end up looking like the ‘NS5’ robots in the 2004 film I, Robot. But for anyone worried about a Terminator-style situation, Musk tried to set those fears to rest as well. 

‘It’s intended to be friendly, of course,’ Musk said during the initial Tesla Bot announcement last year. ‘And navigate through a world built for humans.’ 

The tech leader said at the initial presentation that humans would be able to outrun and overpower the Tesla Optimus if they needed to.

During a question period following Tesla’s AI Day last year, Musk said: ‘We should be worried about AI. What we’re trying to do here at Tesla is make useful AI that people love and is … unequivocally good.’  

Presumably the public will learn more about actual production plans for Optimus on September 30, when Musk is set to unveil a prototype of the machine. 

‘We have a very talented team at Tesla that I’m working with closely to have a prototype humanoid robot ready by the end of September. And I think we are tracking to that point,’ Musk said at a business event in June.

The notion of robotic companions may seem far-fetched. However, Intuition Robotics, which makes a bot called ElliQ, was recently taped by New York officials for 834 of its machines that can help senior citizens who are dealing with loneliness.  

Robots are already having a major impact on manufacturing. The adoption of robotics in warehouses will increase 50 percent or more in the next five years, according to the Material Handling Institute. 

‘We have a very talented team at Tesla that I’m working with closely to have a prototype humanoid robot ready by the end of September,’ Musk has previous said