Elon Musk predicts Tesla’s humanoid ‘Optimus’ robots will eventually outnumber humans

• Elon Musk predicted that Tesla’s AI-powered humanoid robots would one day outnumber humans.
• “I don’t think there’s anyone even close to Tesla on solving real-world AI,” Musk said.
• Musk first revealed Tesla’s “Optimus” robots in 2021, though the prototype was revealed to be a person in a bodysuit. 

On Wednesday, Elon Musk predicted that the ratio of AI-powered humanoid robots to human beings “might be greater than one to one.”

“You could sort of see a home use for robots, certainly industrial uses for robots, humanoid robots,” he said. 

Musk’s musings about AI came during Tesla’s first-ever Investor Day presentation, which was held at the carmaker’s Austin, Texas, Gigafactory. 

During the presentation, Musk showed an updated video of the company’s “Optimus” robot prototype, which Musk said he aims to use in Tesla factories and sell to the public. 

“The thing that I think Tesla brings to the table that others don’t have is that we have real-world AI,” he said.

“You can think of the car as a robot on wheels, and this is a robot on legs… I don’t think there’s anyone even close to Tesla on solving real-world AI.” 

Still, Tesla did not share a timeline for officially launching the robots.

Plans for the Optimus robot were first revealed at Tesla’s AI Day event in 2021, though in its initial debut, the bot was revealed to be a guy dancing in a bodysuit. 

In September 2022, Tesla unveiled a robot prototype carried by a team of engineers because “it wasn’t quite ready to walk,” according to Musk. 

Wednesday’s update showed a more advanced version of the AI robot which walked and completed tasks. However, this time, the updates were shown in a pre-produced video instead of to the crowd in person. 

“It’s obviously not doing parkour, but it is walking around,” Musk said of the Tesla’s new Optimus iteration.