FP StaffJun 06, 2022 16:12:10 IST
When it comes to humanoid robots, we assume that Japanese scientists and tech companies based out of Japan are at the forefront. Well, American companies like Boston Dynamics and Tesla, would like to differ.
At the inaugural Tesla AI Day in 2021, Elon Musk announced that Tesla was working on a functional human sized robot. Well, come September 2022, it seems that Tesla will indeed be unveiling their first functional prototype robot, aptly named, Optimus.
Elon Musk, in a tweet, revealed that this year’s Tesla AI day has to be pushed to September 30, because that is how much time they will need to complete the prototype robot, Optimus.
Musk and his team of engineers at Tesla believe that Optimus has the potential to overtake their EV business. The Tesla bot, Optimus, will measure an average human height of F’8” and will have some physical features that closely mimic that of humans. Tesla’s humanoid is supposed to take over mundane human tasks, freeing up more time for humans to get involved in a variety of creative and scientific ventures.
It will be interesting to see how this would fare in the real world. Anatomically speaking, Tesla’s humanoid is shaped exactly like a human. Anthropologists all over the world agree that the human shape isn’t necessarily the smartest of designs when it comes to most of the physically demanding tasks that we need to do. That is why you will see that most functional robots rarely look anything like modern day human beings.
It will be interesting to see how Tesla implements its humanoid robots and for what applications will their robots be used.
One has to keep in mind, that of late, Elon Musk has been missing a lot of the deadlines that he had set for himself. As per Musk, SpaceX was supposed to have landed on Mars by now, and Tesla’s robot taxis would have taken over most American cities.
Having said that, the technocrat has been hard at work. He’s collaborating with NASA for their commercial crew transport, one of his dream projects, Starlink, is up and running in most of the world, and Starship is a work in progress. Moreover, the Dragon spacecraft is the de facto cargo delivery partner for the International Space Station (ISS) as of now.
Knowing Elon Musk, and his tendency to pull a rabbit out of thin air at the most crucial of times, it is highly possible that we may indeed get to see the first humanoid robots from Tesla this September. What remains to be seen, is just how practical and functional will these robots be.
