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Tesla Reveals Progress on Optimus Humanoid Robot

Its movements are more natural (and therefore creepy)

By Rain Noe - December 13, 2023

in Tech

It's almost frightening how quickly Tesla's Optimus 'bot has advanced. Earlier this year the thing moved jankily, and looked like this:

Now its overall form has been streamlined, and its motor functions refined…

…and it currently moves like this:

The dancing thing is dumb, but the advances in its movement style are downright creepy.

Last year Musk announced a production date target of 2023. Obviously that hasn't happened, but he's a helluva lot closer now than he was at the beginning of the year.

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David Merio

11 months ago

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Yawn. Where is the video of it putting cars together? I thought I was going to be impressed until it put the egg down rather than crack it and separate the yolk.

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Alan Nomoto

11 months ago

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Another solution looking for a problem. Just what is this thing supposed to accomplish? No, I’m not buying the betterment of society nonsense. Musk in particular frightens me with his Neuralink company. Tech has become a monetization platform cloaked as ‘ useful design”. I think it’s become rare that good design is incorporated into these products anymore. Please, Honda retired ASIMO. Let’s leave it that way.

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Adam Nunn

11 months ago

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Why do humanoid robots all still walk around like they have to take a dump and they're holding it back? There's something subtle about the lack of hip rotation that seems common with the boston dynamics bipedal robot, and even back to Asimo.

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- Alex Berkowitz
  
  Adam Nunn
  
  11 months ago
  
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  Probably because replicating natural human movement (or any natural movement, really) is incredibly difficult. We have hundreds of muscles interacting in a myriad of ways, and to replicate that motion with a few servos is no small feat. Not that robots aren't capable of realistic motion--Boston Dynamics' bots have shown significant improvement since their inception, and it shows--but it's a long road.
  
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- Sam R
  
  Adam Nunn
  
  11 months ago
  
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  I believe the gate is modeled on Elon's, and that's what you're seeing in this case.
  
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  - Dee An
    
    Sam R
    
    11 months ago
    
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    Dancing appears to have been adopted by the industry as a way of showing robots' movements - it would be be dumb of Tesla*not* to have their robot dance. See the Boston Dynamics dance video!
    
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- Ross Oliver
  
  Adam Nunn
  
  11 months ago
  
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  I have a more general question: why do people design robots to be humanoid? A robot should be optimized for the task or set of tasks it is intended to perform In almost no cases does this require a humanoid shape. It is misplaced anthropomorphism, taking your design requirements from sci fi books and movies.
  
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  - Ryan Cee
    
    Ross Oliver
    
    11 months ago
    
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    Exactly. There's no reason to develop bipedal human robots to navigate a flat warehouse which is going to be 99% of the use cases.
    
    "taking your design requirements from sci fi" Far too many tech bros do this, it's the entire reason the flying car scam pops up in a 24 month cycle.
    
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  - Mace Moneta
    
    Ross Oliver
    
    11 months ago
    
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    People design the environment to suit people. A humanoid robot can fit and function in the same environments without any special considerations.
    
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