Tesla Unveils Optimus Humanoid Robot Prototype at AI Day

At Tesla's second AI Day event, CEO Elon Musk brought a working prototype of Optimus, the company's humanoid robot, onstage, where it walked slowly, waved to the crowd, and pantomimed watering a plant.

Musk said Tesla aimed to eventually sell Optimus for less than $20,000, positioning it as a general-purpose worker capable of handling repetitive or dangerous tasks. He acknowledged the prototype shown was an early, unrefined version, distinct from a more polished but non-functional unit that had also been displayed onstage.

Tesla engineers used the event to detail the actuators, battery pack, and neural-network-based control systems shared between Optimus and Tesla's self-driving software stack. Reaction was mixed, with some analysts calling the demo underwhelming relative to Musk's yearlong buildup, while others saw it as a credible first step for a project only announced in 2021.