In our image: why do we want humanoid robots so badly?
While onstage at Tesla’s AI day in August, Elon Musk surprised attendees with the announcement that his car company was working on a humanoid robot, designed to walk around and help out people using Tesla’s engineering and artificial intelligence skills.
“We think we’ll probably have a prototype some time next year,” Musk said, standing next to a non-functioning model of the “Tesla Bot” and later joined by a dancer wearing a robot costume. “It’s intended to be friendly, of course, and navigate through a world built for humans, and eliminate dangerous, repetitive and boring tasks.”
Codenamed Optimus, the current plan for the Tesla Bot is a 5ft 8in white-and-black machine with a screen for a face. It will be capable of walking at five miles per hour and carrying 45 pounds. “We’re setting it such that it is at a mechanical, physical level you can run away from it,” he said to laughs. “And most likely overpower it. Hopefully that doesn’t ever need to happen, but you never know.”
The plan is for the Tesla Bot to take on boring tasks that humans can’t be bothered to do any more. Musk mentioned running to the shops; perhaps
