Elon Musk has vowed that “everyone will have their own personal R2D2 or C3PO” robot in the future.
The tech entrepreneur, 53, said his company Tesla has made “a lot of progress” in developing humanoid robots with legs and arms that can perform an array of tasks including walking your dog, serving drinks, fetching groceries and babysitting your children. The black and white Optimus robots were unveiled during an event at a Hollywood studio on Thursday night.
The robots, which Musk estimated would cost between $28,000 (£21,450) and $30,000 (£23,000), walked a few feet from the attendees before showing off dance moves in a futuristic-looking gazebo. The Tesla founder said the latest invention of robots with arms and legs instead of robots with wheels is “something spectacular, something that anyone could own.”
Elon Musk said everyone will be able to have their own robot (
@Elonmusk/X)
He said: “You could have your own personal R2D2 or C3PO.” He added the humanoid robot will do “anything you want” it to do, including being a teacher or a friend. He declared: “Whatever you can think of, it will do. And it’s going to be awesome.”
As the audience at the event cheered him on, Musk added: “I think this will be the biggest product ever, of any kind.” He also claimed every single person in the world “is gonna want their Optimus buddy.”
The robots were unveiled during an event in Los Angeles (
@Elonmusk/X)
Musk pulled up to a stage at the Warner Bros. studio lot in one of Tesla’s new “Cybercabs” and told the crowd that the sleek, AI-powered vehicles don’t have steering wheels or pedals. He also expressed confidence in the progress the company has made on autonomous driving technology that makes it possible for vehicles to drive without human intervention.
Tesla began selling the software, which is called “Full Self-Driving”, nine years ago – but there are doubts about its reliability. “We’ll move from supervised Full Self-Driving to unsupervised Full Self-Driving. where you can fall asleep and wake up at your destination,” he said. “It’s going to be a glorious future.”
Musk said the robots can carry out any task including cleaning, fetching groceries, and babysitting children (
@Elonmusk/X)
The company expects the Cybercabs to cost under $30,000, Musk said. He estimated that the vehicles would become available in 2026, then added “before 2027.” The company also expects to make the Full Self-Driving technology available on its popular Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in Texas and California next year.
“If they’re going to eventually get to robotaxis, they first need to have success with the unsupervised FSD at the current lineup,” said Seth Goldstein, equity strategist at Morningstar Research. “Tonight’s event showed that they’re ready to take that step forward.”
He also presented Tesla’s ‘Cybercars’ during the event (
Tesla)