The pinnacle attraction at Tesla’s Cybercab event was its Optimus robots. The robots were seen serving beer and partaking in activities such as mingling with guests, dancing, and conversing. Now, it has been reported that this was mostly a show, as the robots were reportedly remotely operated by humans.
In videos of the event, the robots could be seen immediately reacting to both auditive and visual stimuli in real time, which would be revolutionary—except Tesla’s Optimus Robots do not seem to be fully autonomous machines.
The Optimus robots did use AI to walk
Robert Scoble, who was a guest at the Cybercab event, posted on X that he had talked to an engineer and explained how the robots actually functioned.
The Optimus Robots that were seen serving a beer were remotely controlled by humans but nevertheless also used AI. This means that, according to Scoble, at the next event, the world will be able to see just how quickly Tesla’s Optimus Robots AI are learning. Impressively, when the Optimus robots were walking, they were indeed operating through AI.
It is also crucial to note that Tesla was not actively advocating that the Optimus Robots were acting without any human assistance anyway.
Another video shows an Optimus voice telling Scoble that “it might be some” when he asked the robot to what extent it was controlled by AI.
I asked. pic.twitter.com/FkgPrdRlyW
— Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) October 11, 2024
Tesla has been working on robotics for a long time
Tesla has traditionally been associated with electric vehicles because of their immense success in that market, but, in actuality, Tesla has been working in robotics for several years already—so quite a long time. In 2021, Elon Musk revealed the first model of Optimus, which was mostly a humanoid exoskeleton designed to handle dangerous and repetitive tasks.
Now, Tesla has scrapped the previous exoskeleton design and has since slimmed down its robots. Tesla has made them less bulky in general. But how were they able to achieve this? Tesla’s work in the robotics division is largely built on the advancements in AI and autonomous systems, which will also be vital for their cars’ self-driving capabilities.
Tesla has already been using robots at its Gigafactories, but these robots are meant to be used for literal heavy lifting. The slimmer design of Tesla’s Optimus Robots is meant to make them friendlier for domestic tasks such as cleaning, carrying heavy objects, or even shopping, among other things.
It sounds like something straight out of The Jetsons.
