Tesla (and not only) wants to build an army of robots

Optimus will be able to do factory work, but that’s just the starting point: this source of tireless, unpaid labor can be trained to do anything. “In the future, working will be optional, just like growing our own vegetables instead of buying them.”

Tesla’s CEO, Elon Muskalready the richest man in the world, is now on his way to becoming the (or first) trillionaire, as Americans say.

Recently, Tesla shareholders approved a brutal salary package for the CEO of the North American electric vehicle manufacturer, including a bonus of around billion dollars in stock options.

But payment will only happen if certain objectives are met — including the construction of 1 million Optimus robots.

Named after a Transformers character (because, obviously, it had to be that way), Optimus is a humanoid machine that supposedly can complete boring and dangerous work replacing humans.

The robot was during Tesla’s “AI Day” event, in which the company detailed its future plans for its humanoid.

Elon Musk then declared that Tesla needed to be “much more than an electric car company”, and to that end, would match this robot its advances in chips, autonomous driving and batteries.

Optimus would be able to do factory work, of course, but that’s just the starting point. Over time, Musk said, Optimus could unleash unprecedented economic and social changes as a source of tireless, unpaid labor that can be trained to do anything.

“In the future, working will be optionalsuch as how to grow our own vegetables instead of buying them at the store,” Musk wrote on X last month.

Perhaps Optimus will be able to provide medical care better than a human surgeon can, Musk suggested, or eliminate the need for prisons following criminals to stop them from “committing crimes” again. I even said that robots could feed a possible colony on Mars.

This is the kind of hyperbole the world has come to expect from Elon Musk, who a decade ago says every year that millions of fully autonomous Tesla electric vehicles arrive “next year”says .

However, there is something real hidden behind Musk’s braggadocio. It’s not just Tesla: many car manufacturers They are also trying to transition to robotics.

The electric vehicle start-up Rivian just announced the creation of a spin-off called Mind Robotics, notes .

A sul-Korean Hyundaiin turn, is so optimistic about a future full of humanoids, that a few years ago he bought the robotics giant — and even has robot dogs checking cars in an American factory, highlights .

Also Xpeng, a fast-growing electric vehicle company in China, which last year recently presented its humanoid robots.

There is, in fact, a lot in common between modern cars and robots. Robots need batteries similar to those inside electric vehicles — you wouldn’t expect an Optimus to be running around smelling like a gasoline engine.

A automotive industry has already invested billions of dollars in advanced sensors, chips and artificial intelligence for autonomous technology. Just add arms and legs, and you basically have a robot.

“The automotive industry is adjacent to so many areas of specialization that are necessary for robotics,” he explained. Sterling Andersonproduct director at General Motors, told The Atlantic. “Robotics and autonomous vehicles both operate in the same worlds.”

Car manufacturers also have access to factory data that can be used to train robots, just as all the writing on the internet has fed into large-scale language models. “No one else has access to this“, also highlights Jiten Behlformer Rivian executive who is now venture capitalist.

The current car factories are already full of industrial robots; the automotive industry buys more of them than any other sector. Articulated robotic arms assemble, weld and paint various parts, and automated platforms transport them to different work stations.

For every car sold, the profit margins are smalland reducing labor costs — or eliminating them altogether — would be a big help to automakers’ bottom lines.

This factor is particularly important in the case of European and North American manufacturers, who face competition from China and have much higher labor costs per vehicle than their Chinese competitors.

It therefore seems inescapable that the automotive industry must once again invest in automation of your production chains — with whole, intelligent humanoids, instead of simple mechanized robotic arms.

Naturally, those who build an army of robots to help in factories also build them to provide a a helping hand in home sweet home — or replacing soldiers humans on battlefields around the world.