TECH NEWS – According to the Tesla chief, the prototype is supposed to arrive “sometime next year” (Boston Dynamics has been working on the same thing for “only” almost 30 years, but Elon Musk might be able to work wonders – ed.).

The “Iron Man” says his company is working on a humanoid robot and will build a prototype “sometime next year”. The humanoid robot will use Tesla‘s experience with automated machines in its factories and some of the hardware and software from the company’s Autopilot driver-assistance software.

Musk, who has repeatedly spoken of his fear of runaway artificial intelligence, said the Tesla Bot is intended to be “friendly”, but the company is designing the machine “at a mechanical level” so that it can be “run away from and probably be defeated”. It will be five feet eight inches tall, weigh 125 pounds, and have a screen in place of its face. Within the company, the robot is codenamed “Optimus“, he said.

According to the company’s website, the robots will be designed to perform “unsafe, repetitive or tedious tasks,” but little else, at least initially. “I think that essentially, in the future, physical work will be a choice; if you want it, you can do it,” Musk said (we think it’s a “little” more complicated than that – ed.).

Musk unveiled the robot’s drawings towards the end of the company’s “AI Day” event. He showed off some of the artificial intelligence and supercomputing technologies he’s working on with the goal of one day driving self-driving cars. The company also had a mannequin version on stage, but it didn’t work (we mean, a dummy doesn’t do anything, so it was OK as a dummy, but not a robot – ed.)

Tesla’s history is full of imaginative ideas that never came to fruition – such as a solar-powered Supercharger network, battery swapping or robotic snake-like chargers – so one can only speculate whether a working Tesla Bot will ever see the light of day. But the company is where it is because of Musk’s sheer will. However, when asked how economical it would be to enter the robotics industry soon, Musk could only say, “we’ll see“.

Source: The Verge