Electric vehicle giant Tesla proudly announced the list of major innovations it has achieved since 2018, revealing key accomplishments in Optimus development.
Optimus development milestones
Tesla’s official X account outlined the “rundown” of its achievements over the past 6 years under Chief Executive Elon Musk’s leadership, including the remarkable progress in its humanoid robot project.
As indicated in the X post, Tesla has made a significant number of updates to improve and refine Optimus, such as follows:
- “2021: Unveiled Optimus
- 2023: Optimus Gen 2 unveiled
- 2024: – Developed 3 major design revisions of Optimus & 4 revisions of the hand in the last two years, with Optimus autonomously navigating daily in our office & labs; Deployed two Optimus bots performing tasks in the factory autonomously”
The X post outlining Tesla’s milestones seems to be part of its efforts to urge shareholders to support Elon Musk’s compensation package at the upcoming 2024 Annual Stockholders’ Meeting.
Optimus design evolution
According to Tesla, the team has implemented three major design updates to Optimus. The hands of the humanoid bot have also undergone four revisions in the past two years.
With these refinements, Tesla managed to equip Optimus with the necessary capabilities it needed to “autonomously” navigate daily in its office and laboratories.
Tesla has already launched two Optimus bots at the factory to help in some tasks that may be tedious to human workers, paving the way for a more efficient operation.
While these updates might just refer to a previous demo of cell line autonomy, they remain a noteworthy advancement for the Musk-led company.
Potential production launch in late 2024
Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated during the Q1 2024 Earnings Call that the Optimus team could officially kick off the limited production before the end of 2024.
These innovative humanoid robots can also start working at Tesla’s electric vehicle factories before the end of the year. By the end of 2025, the EV giant expects to sell Optimus to other interested clients.
In the meantime, Tesla is working to equip Optimus with hands that have “22 degrees of freedom” later this year. This feature will apparently enable the humanoid bot to operate with nearly the same level of proficiency as a human worker.
