Remember that Tesla bot that Musk revealed back in August last year at Tesla’s inaugural AI Day? Well, a working prototype could be right around the corner, if Musk’s latest tweet is to be believed. Although it isn’t always wise to do that.
The Tesla CEO announced via Twitter that the electric automotive company’s second AI Day will be postponed until 30 September as the company “may” have a working prototype by then.
Optimus in his prime
Tesla AI Day pushed to Sept 30, as we may have an Optimus prototype working by then
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2022
It was revealed last year that Optimus, as the bot is known, will stand at 173cm and weigh only 57kg. It will have a carrying capacity of twenty kilograms, which doesn’t offer much support to Musk’s statement that “physical work will be a choice” in the future.
According to a slide in last year’s presentation, the bot is intended to eliminate the need for humans to do dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks, like assembling electric vehicles or other bots. Wouldn’t it be a great idea if we taught the bots to build themselves? We’re sure nothing bad can come from that.
Read More: Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot raises serious concerns – but probably not the ones you think
Musk also promised that his bots will be friendly. We would certainly hope so. As terrifying as a SkyNet situation is to think about, the scarier thought is how bots like this will affect job security. Luckily, the bots need electricity to run, so South Africans are probably safe. As long as the human job doesn’t require electricity either, anyway.
Before any Tesla bot uprisings can happen, the project will need to develop past being just a working prototype. Which… might happen. Optimus and his potential future brethren will feature much of the same tech found in Tesla EVs. Thankfully, the prospect of a robot overlord is a little less daunting if it has to be taken offline every month for a firmware update. As long as the ‘bots don’t build themselves a way around that. They can’t do that, can they?