Everyone knows Elon Musk as the outspoken, ambitious founder of Tesla and SpaceX, but now the man who started the electric car revolution is looking toward a future full of robots. Musk has incredibly ambitious plans to use thousands of humanoid robots, dubbed Tesla Bot or Optimus, in its factories. Musk and Tesla recently debuted the Optimus prototype at Tesla’s 2022 AI Day. James Morris of Forbes Magazine notes that it is anticipated that Optimus will stand 5 feet 8 inches tall, look humanoid, and weigh 125 pounds. It won't be able to run; it can only stroll at 5 mph, which does mean humans can simply escape it if they wanted to. However, the robot will be able to carry 45 pounds and deadlift 150 pounds (Morris 2022). More specifically, Musk says that robots can handle simple tasks like taking care of the elderly, cooking, yard work, and even going to the store to buy groceries (Jin 2022). This may all seem great, but customers are going to have to pay a pretty penny for Musk’s new toy. Musk stated that he intends to create the robot in large quantities and sell one bot for approximately less than $20,000, though it is still unclear when exactly the robot will hit the market (Johal 2022).

So what exactly makes the Optimus so unique tech-wise? Musk describes Optimus as “friendly” with “human-level hands”, “autopilot cameras'' for eyes, and a “full self-driving computer” for a brain (Hawkins and Shakir 2022). The robot also features Wi-Fi and LTE connection, a 2.3kWh battery pack, a Tesla SoC, along with the concept of online motion adaptation. Tesla motion recorded humans performing actual chores, like lifting a box, and then used Optimus to replicate the movements using inverse kinematics. Online motion adaptation is used to reduce the rigidity of these activities and enable their manipulation to account for an unstructured environment (Hawkins and Shakir 2022). What’s even more unique is that Tesla plans on designing Optimus to respond to real-life situations. Lizzie Miskovetz, a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer at Tesla, and a member of the engineering team states: “We want to leverage both the autopilot hardware and the software for the humanoid platform, but because it's different in requirements and inform factor. It's going to do everything that a human brain does: processing vision data, making split-second decisions based on multiple sensory inputs and also communications” (Tarantola 2022). Tesla is also developing its actuators, which are compact assemblies of gears, motors, sensors, and controllers that function similarly to the muscles of a person. The business is using the group that currently creates the drive units for Tesla automobiles. Tesla Engineers demonstrated their calculations at Tesla AI Day to determine the optimal combination of six actuators for the entire robot in terms of cost, ease of manufacture, speed, torque, mass, and efficiency. The company also utilizes a sophisticated four-bar hinging system that can adjust an actuator's different demands for strength or speed depending on how much the knee is bent (Shankland 2022). While Musk and his team are still in the early stages of developing the bot, Tesla looks so far to promise a revolutionary product using groundbreaking engineering mechanisms that mimic the actions of a human.

Some critics say that artificial intelligence bots might pose a danger to mankind and could even eliminate human employment in the future. One example is Martin Ford, a futurist and author of “Rule of the Robots: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Everything”, who states: “In theory, if we had a humanoid robot that could do basically anything a person could do, that would have a dramatic impact on employment” (Masunaga 2022). However, Musk says that the main purpose of Optimus is for the robot to ultimately help humans while not negatively affecting humanity. Musk wants to use robots to complete tasks that people don't want to undertake or that may be dangerous for people. At Tesla’s AI Day in 2021, Musk stated, “In the future, physical work will be a choice. If you want to do it, you can. But you won’t need to do it.” (Masunaga 2022). It is interesting to ponder the potential benefits that robots have over people, from a business perspective, as the robots would not complain about long hours of physical labor, chemical exposure, injuries, or other unfavorable working circumstances that humans may have to deal with.

There’s also a chance that Optimus could have huge financial implications as expected for the industry in the future, more specifically as a potential driver in the stock market. Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu states, “We wouldn't be surprised to see it becoming the primary driver of the stock price towards the end of the decade. Imagine Optimus as a startup today: It could be valued at several billion dollars, maybe even a few tens" (Shankland 2022). In particular, Research firm IDTechEx anticipates that the market for service robots will grow even more in the wake of Tesla's arrival as it can only spark more competition. By 2032, the service robot industry, according to IDTechEx, will be worth more than $70 billion, or approximately 4.7 times what it is in 2022 (IDTechEx 2022).\

There is still a need to successfully produce a robot for the open market. One of the only notable ones deemed successful is the iRobot Roomba- a robotic vacuum that cleans up consumers’ houses. However, while this may be the case, if any man can do it, it’s Elon Musk. Even considering all the pros and cons of what Optimus could do to humans and the workforce, Musk’s utopian idea could be a life-changing and world-altering step in technology. Still, more specifically, Optimus could indeed signal an artificial intelligence takeover.

References

Hawkins, Andrew J., and Umar Shakir. “Tesla CEO Elon Musk Unveils Prototype Humanoid Optimus Robot.” The Verge. The Verge, October 1, 2022. https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/30/ 23374729/tesla-bot-ai-day-robot-elon-musk-prototype-optimus-humanoid. 

IDTechEx. “Idtechex Report: Tesla's Optimus Takes Service Robots to the next Level.” automation.com, October 4, 2022. https://www.automation.com/en-us/articles/october-2022 /idtechex-tesla-optimus-service-robots-next-level. 

Jin, Hyunjoo. “Elon Musk Faces Skeptics as Tesla Gets Ready to Unveil 'Optimus' Robot.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, September 20, 2022. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos- transportation/elon-musk-faces-skeptics-tesla-gets-ready-unveil-optimus-robot-2022-09-20/. 

Johal, Wafa. “Tesla's Optimus Robot Isn't Very Impressive – but It May Be a Sign of Better Things to Come.” The Conversation, October 3, 2022. https://theconversation.com/teslas- optimus-robot-isnt-very-impressive-but-it-may-be-a-sign-of-better-things-to-come-191761#:~:text=Musk%20has%20now%20unveiled%20a,US%2420%2C000%20(A%2431%2C000).&text=At%20the%20unveiling%2C%20the%20robot,and%20lifting%20in%20a%20video. 

Masunaga, Samantha. “Will Elon Musk's Tesla Bot Replace Human Workers? Don't Bet on It.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2022. https://www.latimes.com/business/ story/2022-09-30/tesla-automation-workforce. 

Morris, James. “Optimus Is Coming: Are You Ready for Tesla's Robot Humanoid Invasion?” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, September 26, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmorris/2022/ 09/24/optimus-is-coming-are-you-ready-for-teslas-robot-humanoid-invasion/?sh=19296b73cbca.

Shankland, Stephen. “Don't Laugh off Elon Musk's Tesla Bot. Optimus Is the Real Deal.” CNET, October 5, 2022.https://www.cnet.com/home/smart-home/dont-laugh-off-elon-musks-tesla-bot- optimus-is-the-real-deal/.  

Tarantola, Andrew. “Tesla Debuts an Actual, Mechanical Prototype of Its Optimus Robot.” Engadget, September 30, 2022. https://www.engadget.com/tesla-debuts-optimus-humanoid -service-robot-ai-day-2022-012054385.html.