Tesla is planning to lay off more than ten percent of its global workforce. So, it might be just the right time for the Optimus humanoid robot to step in. The automaker posted a video on social media to show how it sorts battery cells.
What Tesla is trying to prove is that Optimus is perfectly capable of doing the tasks of several workers. It is able of performing basic factory tasks, such as sorting 4680 battery cells, without any human intervention. What it actually does is move them from one tray to another.
Its activity is based on cameras, hand tactile sensors, and force sensors, which collect data about the surroundings. Tesla has already put Optimus to work in one of its companies and highlights that the humanoid robot needs less and less human intervention as it continues to learn and fix its own mistakes along the way.
The video also shows Optimus walking further than before, taking a long stroll around the office in the sped-up video.
To reveal the progress of its humanoid robot, Tesla has been constantly showing videos of it performing more and more difficult tasks. We have seen it do yoga, fold laundry, and now, sort battery cells.
Photo: Tesla Optimus | X
Tesla unveiled Optimus Gen 2 late last year. The new-generation humanoid robot should be able to take over repetitive tasks from human workers.
During Tesla's Q1 earnings call that took place last week, Elon Musk informed employees that Optimus will be more widely used in the coming years. Musk expects Optimus to be capable of threading a needle before the end of 2024.
Tesla is planning to start selling the robots to external customers by the end of 2025. Back in March, the Tesla CEO mentioned a price range between $25,000 and $35,000.
But considering that the Tesla Cybertruck was presented back in November 2019, starting at $39,990, and it now starts at $60,990, we should just wait and see. Musk claimed that Optimus would cost less than half a car to produce.
Milan Kovac, the engineer who is responsible for the development of the Tesla bot, unveils that the manufacturing team has built more bots for his team to work on and collect AI data from over the past couple of months.
He goes on to explain that they have trained and deployed a neural net, allowing Optimus to start doing useful tasks. One of the tasks is picking up battery cells coming down a conveyor and precisely inserting them into a tray.
How far the tech has come and how soon the bots will actually be able to take over human tasks without needing humans to keep a close eye on them, we have yet to see. However, it is clear that they are a far cry from what human workers can do.
Google News