Because, boy oh boy, it was quite a laundry list of promises.
It, you know, it can do factory stuff, Musk said while describing the robot on Thursday.
Musk went on to say Optimus would be like having your own personal robot from the Star Wars franchise.
Footage of the Optimus robot played during the Tesla shareholder’s meeting in Austin, Texas on June 13, 2024.Gif: YouTube / Tesla
Like, who doesnt want a C3PO, you know?
You know, but a C3PO plus R2D2 plus, you know, plus plus.
It would be pretty awesome.
I think everyone in the world is going to want one.
Like, literally everyone, Musk continued.
Musk first announced Teslas Optimus robotback in 2021when he brought out a person in a robot costume.
And the robot appears to have made some real strides since that first unveiling.
But the footage thats been made public shows that Optimus still lags behind major competitors insignificant ways.
Limited production for use in our factories.
And those were the relatively modest predictions.
Then Musk started to get more bold with it.
The degree of autonomy will be radically better.
Now do that the thing that Im showing you.
So therell be, you know, more than 10 billion humanoid robots in the world.
Probably 20 or more… and Tesla is gonna be by far the leader in that.
It will be able to play the piano.
So its really like wow.
There have been plenty of robots thatplay the piano, of course.
The question is whether you’re free to make a robot that plays the piano well.
But then Musk made a prediction about the value of Tesla in the future.
Optimus, I think, is a 25.
Literally $25 trillion market cap situation.
For context, Apples current market cap is $3.29 trillion.
Will any of Musks predictions come true?
As always, no one knows the future with any certainty.
So we know some of Musks goals are achievable, if only because other companies are already doing it.
However, we still have a long way to go before we see robots babysitting kids.
At least a long way before such a thing can be done responsibly.
And thats more or less the crux of the problem when it comes to Musk and his consumer-facing products.
Theyre just not something that any responsible person would rely on heavily yet.
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