Tesla CEO Elon Musk told investors on Wednesday that the Optimus humanoid robot is Tesla’s most important work this year, which he showed last year. This robot makes it imitate a human to dance on the stage.
Musk said humanoid robots will be very important to solving the labor shortage in the United States, and their first use will be Tesla’s own factories. Over time, Optimus has the potential to be more important than the automotive business, he said. Musk said Tesla plans to launch a prototype device sometime in 2022.
Musk said, The foundation of the economy is labor, so what if there is a labor shortage? I don’t know what the economy means at that time. That’s what Optimus is about. So — very important.
The robot was first announced by Musk at the Tesla Artificial Intelligence Day event in August last year, and the automaker intends to have it take over dangerous, repetitive, physical tasks from humans in the future. Tesla said Optimus, also known as Tesla Robot, will use the same artificial intelligence system as driver assistance technologies like Tesla Autopilot.
Musk also said that Tesla is addressing supply chain issues that will affect production this year and will not launch any new models as Tesla will focus on ramping up output at the new factory.