Tesla’s humanoid robot, named Optimus, is still under development in the lab, but company CEO Elon Musk has said it could be ready to sell to the public by the end of next year.
The billionaire has said that robot sales could form a major part of the company’s business model in the future.
The solutions have been becoming more popular as a potential answer to global labour shortages in facilities like warehouses or manufacturing settings.
Investors were told on a conference call yesterday [23 April 2024] by Musk that he thought Optimus would be capable of basic factory duties by the end of 2024.
Other key player’s in the humanoid game include Agility Robotics, whose digit solution was deployed by Amazon and made global headlines, as well as Boston Dynamics and Figure.
Figure, which is backed by tech giants Microsoft and Nvidia, signed a partnership with automaker BMW to deploy humanoid robots at one of its US facilities this year.
Billionaire Musk has said before that robot sales could become a larger part of the Tesla business than other segments, including car manufacturing.
