Tech giant Tesla has just postponed the highly anticipated rollout of the Optimus humanoid robot.
Tesla pushes back delivery of humanoid bot
In hindsight, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk announced a few months ago that he expects to deploy Optimus humanoid robots to accomplish real tasks inside actual Tesla factories by the end of 2024.
The Tesla boss also forecasted in April 2024 that the company may start offering Optimus to interested customers beyond the company by the end of the following year.
CEO Musk even noted that the new Optimus design, which he teased to be completed in late 2024, is “something special.”
Now, Tesla CEO Musk has shared a new update for Optimus’ launch timeline, implying a notable delay to the original plans.
“Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026.”
Tesla CEO Musk
As you can observe, the latest update indicates about a year postponement compared to CEO Musk’s prior timeline. Despite the delay, many Tesla and Musk fans remain excited about the development of Optimus.
Latest shift follows history of ambitious timelines from the Tesla boss
Tesla’s sudden changes in Optimus’ launch timeline are no longer surprising, considering CEO Elon Musk’s reputation for declaring too ambitious targets that Tesla usually fails to meet.
In fact, it has been the situation for nearly 6 long years with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite.
In addition, the Tesla boss also recently announced the delay of the highly awaited debut of the new Robotaxi, which was originally set for August 8. CEO Musk cited front design tweaks for the sudden plan changes.
Tesla’s production targets
Tesla CEO Musk expects the emerging, humanoid bot industry to achieve an annual production unit of approximately 1 billion across the world by 2040. Of that total, he aims for Tesla Optimus to deliver “at least 10% of it”.
In order to achieve that, the Tesla boss plans to mass-produce these innovative humanoid bots for about $10,000 per unit in the future. Tesla will then sell each Optimus for at least $20,000, resulting in a $1 trillion profit.
However, it remains unclear if Tesla can actually account for 10% of the projected 1 billion annual humanoid bot production, considering CEO Musk’s too-aggressive targets.
