Elon Musk has finally unveiled his company’s long-awaited Tesla robot “Optimus” and we’re not sure it got the response he expected…at least, from the internet.
At Tesla’s “AI Day” event, the robot appeared from behind a set of double doors in all its metallic glory.
It then did a little dance involving arm thrusts and some hip movement accompanied by an EDM song.
Imagine baby boomers doing water aerobics except robotic and on a Tesla stage in California.
Tesla Bot coming out and dancing 🤣 @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/TKT1lSGyqa
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 1, 2022
“There’s still a lot of work to be done to refine Optimus and prove it,” Musk said as per SBS.
“I think Optimus is going to be incredible in five or ten years, like mind-blowing.”
Right now, Optimus can water plants, carry boxes, and lift metal bars as per a video shown at the event.
Musk said he wanted to sell the robot for USD $20,000 (AUD $31,000 ) and produce “millions” of them as per the ABC.
As far as a sales pitch goes, I’m not sure if I’d pay 30 grand to have a few boxes moved and some plants watered.
However, Musk saw my critique coming a mile away and said the event was less of a sales pitch and more of an opportunity to recruit talented engineers. Sure, king.
This didn’t mean people on the internet weren’t going to rattle off a few spicy thoughts.
I love all of elon musk’s products
– exploding car
– moron tunnel
– paperweight spaceship
– forsaken by god robot— Eleanor Robertson (@marrowing) October 1, 2022
Elon’s robot has the agility of someone learning how to walk again after an accident in a self driving tesla
— eve6 (@Eve6) October 1, 2022
Elon Musk’s entire schtick now is making a demo, smirking about how the companies who have already done a lot of work to get past the demo stage have “hit the wall,” and then never even getting far enough to hit the same wall before finding a buzzy new domain to repeat the cycle.
— E.W. Niedermeyer (@Tweetermeyer) October 1, 2022
Bruh, go look at Japan with what they can do with robots
Elon’s robot is shite https://t.co/pkLDLovv20
— 🍨LoZza🍨 (@CocoaFox023) October 1, 2022
Elon Musk presenting the Tesla robot. pic.twitter.com/VCE5FAJExM
— Ultra-Vaxxed Wokaholic 📯 (@DrHOSP1) October 1, 2022
You know innovation is dead in Silicon Valley when $TSLA builds a robot that Toyota and Honda already built 17 yrs ago.
— SeedPlant (@ChiaWatchItGrow) October 1, 2022
Much of the criticism levelled at Musk related to his skill in keeping Tesla’s stock price high.
As a publicly-owned company, launch events like these are key to keeping current investors happy and showing potential investors that Tesla is worth their money.
Despite Tesla’s recent jump in profitability, Musk has seemingly been stuck in a loop of making big announcements, rarely delivering on them, and then making more announcements.
A glaring example, is Tesla’s “Autopilot” self-driving feature which isn’t really autonomous at all.
One thing’s for sure, ain’t no way I’m forking out thousands of bucks for a robot that can’t even open a beer yet.
