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In September 2021, Tesla announced that they are planning to build the company’s first humanoid robot and this September, on AI Day 2022 we could see the results coming to life. On the 20th of September 2022, Elon Musk presented the Optimus prototype – made of only Tesla-designed components.
Before Optimus was presented, the company showed off a different robot, doing simple tasks like watering plants, carrying boxes, walking, and picking objects, however it was not clarified if the robot was moving on its own or was being operated remotely. It would be utterly impressive progress since last year, except the issue is that the humanoid prototype which Elon is planning to distribute is far behind the experimental robot they showcased, when it comes to abilities.
The unveiled prototype is unable to even walk yet, however, Elon Musk declares that Optimus’s capabilities will be, ,,mind-blowing’’ in 5 to 10 years and aims to mass-produce them at a relatively low cost of less than 20 000$ to make the bots easily accessible to as many people as they can.
All because Tesla wants to make these humanoids an essential part of peoples’ households, in aim to save them the time of doing mundane, everyday tasks. However a question arises – do people really need a humanoid to walk their dog and pick their groceries? And even if they do, why humanoids? It would be far easier to develop a household robot, that is not necessarily human-like shaped.
Some sceptics also say that this is just another huge promise from Elon Musk, much like his autonomous cars. However considering Tesla’s recent focus on AI, it is probable that we will see a breakthrough in this technology in a couple of years.
Sources :
https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-set-showcase-teslas-humanoid-robot-after-delay-2022-09-30/
https://www.ft.com/video/51e4bfd4-9d50-43a7-afa1-53030dcf65fc
https://www.ft.com/content/ea6b6c12-9931-4e8f-9b9d-61e5c58fdfb8
The main question that arises is what is the point of those humanoids and how quickly they would be fully developed if they can barely walk. In my opinion, Musk’s vision is too optimistic in terms of introducing them to the public and their role in society is not crucial. In addition, I agree that these basic house activities that you have mentioned could be done either by humans or by the technologies or services that do not require the invention of such a humanoid.
I think that people don’t need robots to do the most trivial activities like picking up groceries or walking a dog. However, if they don’t have time for that or are lazy and have money, then why not? To answer the next question, I would say that people would like to have a robot in the form of a humanoid, to have the closest appearance to a human so that they don’t feel odd that it’s not a human doing these tasks after all.