American electric vehicle giant Tesla has just released a new update on its Optimus humanoid robot development on Sunday.
The newly published video showcased Optimus’ ability to autonomously sort battery cells and take longer walks, among others.
Tesla shares update on Optimus’ new capability
Tesla’s official Optimus X account posted an over 1-minute video demonstrating the humanoid robot’s newly learned skills.
As you can see, Tesla Optimus utilizes its end-to-end neural network to complete various factory tasks, such as sorting 4680 battery cells on its own. The humanoid robot also showed how it can fix its own mistakes without human intervention.
It can also now take longer walks than its earlier prototypes. The video showed how Optimus took a long stroll across Tesla’s office.
Technology behind Optimus
As Tesla revealed in the new video update, the innovative Optimus robot employs various technologies to function and perform tasks. These technologies include cameras, hand tactile sensors, and force sensors to accumulate crucial data about their surroundings.
Tesla has already started testing Optimus at one of its existing electric vehicle factories.
Tesla has been progressive in its Optimus development, increasing the robot’s walking rate and performance precision.
In late September last year, Optimus could autonomously fold laundry, sort objects, and even perform yoga.
Tesla’s plans for Optimus
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced during the latest Q1 2024 Earnings Call that the company aims to expand Optimus’ deployment in the following years.
Tesla reportedly plans to use multiple Optimus robots in the factory to help in various tasks by the end of 2024.
It also plans to sell Optimus units to other interested companies by the end of next year.
In hindsight, CEO Musk also estimated last March that Optimus would eventually cost less than $25,000 or $30,000.
The Tesla boss also expects Optimus to cost “less than half of a car” to build, according to his response to @ARKinvest’s Sam Korus query on X.
These recent developments in the Optimus project align with CEO Musk’s earlier remarks. It would be interesting to see how Optimus would revolutionize the current electric vehicle manufacturing processes.
