Last week, Tesla hosted the We, Robot event, where it unveiled its new autonomous vehicles, the Cybercab and Robovan. The company also placed a significant focus on its humanoid robots, Optimus, which were a major highlight of the show.
During the event, the robots interacted with the crowd, served drinks, engaged in play with guests, and even danced in a gazebo. Surprisingly, they could also converse. However, mainly, it was just a show. Various videos from the We, Robot presentation can give you a sense of how it all unfolded.
Playing charades with the Tesla Optimus robot last night. This is either the single greatest robotics and LLM demo the world has ever seen, or it's MOSTLY remote operated by a human. No in between. pic.twitter.com/vCqzk8DDdO
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) October 12, 2024
So far, the Optimus robots have not achieved a level of autonomy that allows them to independently respond to verbal and visual signals during face-to-face interactions with people in dimly lit crowds. Event participant Robert Scoble learned that humans "remotely assist" the robots. He later clarified that according to an engineer, the robots use AI for walking. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas noted that the robots "relied on teleoperation (human intervention)."
I talked with an engineer.
When it walked that is AI running Optimus.
It is real impressive they brought so many out in crowds at @tesla's event. https://t.co/CtmCKPrL4T
— Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) October 11, 2024
There is clear evidence supporting these claims, such as the fact that all robots had different voices or that their responses were instantaneous, accompanied by appropriate gestures.
It doesn't seem like Tesla was trying too hard to make anyone believe that the Optimus machines were acting independently. In another video, when asked how much of the robot is controlled by AI, the voice of Optimus jokingly replied that it "might be a little bit."
I asked. pic.twitter.com/FkgPrdRlyW
— Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) October 11, 2024
Another robot—or the person voicing it—said to an event participant in a discouraging synthetic voice: "A human is helping me today," adding that it is not fully autonomous (the voice stumbled on the word "autonomous").
Musk first announced Tesla's humanoid robot by bringing a person in a robot suit on stage. So, it's not surprising that Optimus was exaggerated in its presentation at last week's event. People who attended didn't seem disappointed or betrayed by this. However, it is evident that the We, Robot event failed to convey just how far Tesla has really advanced in its work with humanoid robotics.
Source: The Verge
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