Business
Musk Says Tesla Likely to Launch Humanoid Robot Prototype Next Year
Published by maria gbaf
Posted on August 23, 2021
3 min readLast updated: February 15, 2026
Add as preferred source on Google
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by maria gbaf
Posted on August 23, 2021
3 min readLast updated: February 15, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleBy Hyunjoo Jin
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk on Thursday said the electric automaker will probably launch a “Tesla Bot” humanoid robot prototype next year, designed for dangerous, repetitive, or boring work that people don’t like to do.
Speaking at Tesla’s AI Day event, the billionaire entrepreneur said the robot, which stands around five foot eight inches tall, would be able to handle jobs from attaching bolts to cars with a wrench, or picking up groceries at stores.
The robot would have “profound implications for the economy,” Musk said, addressing a labour shortage. He said it was important to make the machine not “super-expensive.”
The AI Day event came amid growing scrutiny over the safety and capability of Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” advanced driver assistant system.
Musk didn’t comment on that scrutiny over the safety of Tesla technology but said that he was confident of achieving full self-driving with higher safety than humans using current in-car cameras and computers.
U.S. safety regulators earlier this week opened an investigation into Tesla’s driver assistant system because of accidents where Tesla cars crashed into stationary police cars and fire trucks.
Two U.S. senators have also called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Tesla’s claims for its “Full Self-Driving” system.
At the event on Thursday Tesla also unveiled chips it designed in-house https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-unveils-own-chip-ai-training-computer-dojo-2021-08-20 for its high-speed computer, Dojo, to help develop its automated driving system. Musk said Dojo would be operational next year.
He said Tesla will also introduce new hardware for its self-driving computer for its Cybertruck electric pick-up truck in “about a year or so.”
Tesla in July pushed back the launch of its much-anticipated Cybertruck from this year, without giving a timeframe for its arrival on the market.
On Thursday some questioned whether Musk, who has frequently touted technology advances at showpiece events only to scale plans down later on, would be able to come good on his aims for the robot.
“Is the ‘Tesla Bot’ the next dream shot to pump up the hype machine?” said Raj Rajkumar, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
“I can safely say that it will be much longer than 10 years before a humanoid bot from any company on the planet can go to the store and get groceries for you.”
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Karishma Singh and Kenneth Maxwell)
The Tesla Bot is a humanoid robot prototype that Elon Musk announced will likely be launched next year. It is designed to handle various tasks, addressing labor shortages.
Musk stated that the Tesla Bot could have profound implications for the economy, particularly in addressing labor shortages and making tasks more efficient.
There is growing scrutiny over the safety of Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving' system, with investigations opened due to accidents involving stationary emergency vehicles.
Tesla has delayed the launch of the Cybertruck, initially anticipated for this year, without providing a specific timeframe for its arrival.
Experts, including a professor from Carnegie Mellon University, expressed skepticism about the timeline for a humanoid robot capable of performing everyday tasks, suggesting it may take much longer than a decade.
Explore more articles in the Business category
