Tesla AI Day: Optimus Bot Was Better Than Anyone Expected
But nowhere near solving the truly hard challenges of robotics
As I promised on Tuesday, today I bring you an analysis of Tesla’s autonomous humanoid robot, Optimus, unveiled yesterday at AI day 2022. As I always try to do, this is a nuanced take that highlights the good—and the bad.
Last year’s AI day was especially exciting because Musk revealed Tesla was working on Optimus, a robot intended to “eliminate dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks,” and capable of following orders expressed in natural language like, “pick up that bolt and attach it to the car with that wrench.” (Remember Google’s PaLM-SayCan?)
Musk also promised they’d have a working prototype for 2022’s AI day, which—given the unrealistic deadline—, hyped some and reminded others of his tendency to overpromise and underdeliver. I was in the latter group.
Before we dive into it, let me remind you that AI day is explicitly intended for recruiting purposes: The target audience isn’t journalists or investors, but engineers.