Tesla‘s humanoid robot has come a long way – it was first revealed just as a human in a suit, and now, Optimus can poach an egg like a real chef.
The company shared a clip of its overhauled Generation 2 Optimus robot in a new video, showing the nearly six-foot-tall machine delicately picking up before switching hands and placing it down without breaking the outer shell.
The demonstration video also showed Optimus flexing its fingers, doing squats, and walking across the room – activities necessary for when it replaces humans in the workplace.
Elon Musk unveiled its robotics ambitions in 2021, teasing the humanoid robot using a person in a spandex suit.
A prototype was not revealed until a year later – but the machine was clunky and failed to impress investors.
Now, Musk seems to have ironed out some kinks with the Generation 2 model, which is 30 percent, allowing it to easily perform unsafe, repetitive, or boring tasks, which Tesla shared in the announcement posted to Twitter.
Optimus engineer Milan Kovac called Optimus II a ‘humanoid’ robot and said it ‘is much more capable and resilient than the previous ones.’
Its hands reportedly have 11 more degrees of freedom with ‘Tesla-designed actuators and sensors, which allows the bot to be more delicate and gentle when picking up items.
The video also says Optimus Gen 2 has ‘improved balance and full-body control’ and ‘tactile sensing on all fingers.’
Tesla’s senior staff software engineer, Julian Ibarz, addressed potential concerns that the video of Optimus Gen 2 is fake in a post on X.
Optimus Gen 2 can pick up an egg without breaking the shell due to its advanced tactile senses in its fingers
Optimus Gen 2 weighs 10kg less than its predecessor, has better balance, and is 30 percent faster
Tesla Optimus employees clarify that the video is not sped up and does not use CGI
Ibarz reposted the Optimus Gen 2 video and wrote: ‘Everything in this video is real, no CGI. All real time, nothing sped up. Incredible hardware improvements from the team.’
Musk boasted that Optimus will add long-term value to the Tesla brand at Tesla’s 2023 shareholders meeting in May, saying it should be able to run using the same software and computer used in Tesla’s advanced driver assistance systems.
He added that the software used in a Tesla vehicle is transferable to a humanoid robot in the same way humans can use their arms and legs to ‘drive a car, fly a plane, steer a boat, or ride a horse.’
Musk claimed that Optimus would be available for the general public by 2027 at the shareholders meeting, but his biographer Walter Isaacson disputed all of Musk’s timelines on the podcast, The Diary of a CEO.’
He said Musk is ‘always wrong’ about his projected timelines, using examples of how quickly Tesla would make the cybertruck or how fast humans will get to Mars.
When Musk unveiled the Optimus prototype at Tesla’s 2022 AI Day presentation last year, he said his goal is to create ‘a functional humanoid robot as quickly as possible.’
He added that he wants to produce high quantities of the bot, and claimed it will ‘cost much less than a car — much less than $20,000.’
Musk added that Optimus would help build “a future where there is no poverty” and would fundamentally transform ‘civilization as we know it.’
Optimus Gen 2’s introduction comes as Tesla recalled more than two million cars on Tuesday for driver assistance system software defects.
The recall involved a two-year investigation about whether the Autopilot technology was responsible for a series of reported Tesla car crashes.
