Checking in on Tesla's Optimus Robot - Managing Expectations

Last year Elon Musk announced at the first Tesla AI day the Tesla Bot, which has since been renamed the Tesla Optimus, that is basically a general purpose humanoid robot assistant with human like appearance and proportions. Elon expected they would have a working prototype by the end of 2022.

While very little has been released about the project since, in June Elon took to Twitter to announce that they would delay this year's Tesla AI day until September 30 in anticipation of having a working prototype of the robot by that time.

Elon Musk announces the Tesla Bot at the 2021 Tesla AI day.

When I initially wrote about the Tesla Bot I noted that both Boston Dynamics and Disney Imagineering are developing robot technologies that demonstrate a streamlined, humanoid robot like Optimus is certainly possible.

However with precious few details, and the occasional appearance of static, concept manikins of Tesla Optimus bots at places like the Cyber Rodeo Gigafactory Austin, Texas (see video below), one can only speculate what to expect on September 30th.

With not really much to report I thought I'd see what an AI could cobble together in the way of a blog post about Tesla Optimus. 

Jasper A.I. is a web application that is being used to generate all kinds of written content right now, including blog posts.

Just enter a title, a brief description of what the article should be about, a style, and some keywords, and Jasper can put together an article in seconds. Below is (word for word with no edits by me) what it came up with when I entered the same title as this blog post and described my article as; Writing an update on any recent information about the Tesla Optimus Robot in a semi serious style.

Bonus AI generated images by CrAIyon.

Tesla's Optimus Robot has been the talk of the tech world ever since it was first announced. And with good reason - the potential for this bot to revolutionize home automation is huge.

However, Tesla has been pretty quiet on the Optimus front lately. Some early adopters were disappointed when Tesla failed to deliver on its promise to release the bot in late 2019.

Tesla has since said that the Optimus is still in development and that they are taking their time to make sure it is perfect before release. This is understandable, but it does mean that we are still in limbo as far as an official release date goes.

In the meantime, there have been some interesting rumors and bits of news about the Tesla Optimus Robot. Here's a rundown of the latest:

The Tesla Optimus is rumored to be able to do some pretty amazing things. One of these is its ability to track objects and people around your home. This would be a huge help if you want to keep an eye on your kids or pets while you're away.

Another rumor is that the Tesla Optimus will be able to self-charge. This would be a huge advantage over other robots on the market, as you wouldn't have to worry about plugging it in or running out of power.

The Tesla Optimus is also rumored to be waterproof. This would be an incredible feat, as most robots are not able to withstand even a little bit of water.

At this point, however, these are just rumors. Tesla has not released any official information about the Tesla Optimus. As such, it's important to manage your expectations. Tesla may or may not release a robot that can do all of these things. But if they do, it will surely be a game-changer.

As far as articles goes it's certainly passable to the casual reader, and I would've saved at least a couple of hours writing this if I only published Jasper's effort. 

The trouble is, I don't know if any of it is true? At least one fact is completely wrong... i.e. the Tesla Bot wasn't even a thing in 2019 so how could Tesla fail to deliver on any promises if they haven't even made them yet, and who are those early adopters? Chances are Jasper maybe got confused with Tesla vehicles on this info.

I'm not entirely sure where all the rumors come from either but they do sound plausible. One assumes Jasper simply trawled the internet for these things so maybe they do relate to the Tesla Bot?

Aside from that, it's not a bad effort. I could probably have edited in some real rumors and facts from known sources and still saved myself more than an hour writing.

Anyway, there's not really anything new to report on Tesla Optimus. I guess we'll just have to wait until September 30, AI day. In the meantime, it may be wise to manage expectations. We will only be seeing a prototype after all.

It's likely the first prototype Tesla Optimus won't
deliver on what was promised.