The humanoid robot of Tesla may become more valuable than the company itself, believes chief executive Elon Musk. The robot is dubbed Optimus and Musk predicts it will become apparent with time.
On the occasion of the Q1 earnings call, the wealthiest person in the world said he was surprised to learn that people are not realizing the magnitude of it and those who are insightful may understand the worth of the bipedal robot in the coming years as it will become more valuable than Tesla's car business.
He confirmed the first models of Optimus would be unveiled in 2023. He sounded overly optimistic while experts are doubtful about the timetable. Musk promised in 2016 to deliver self-driving cars in 2017 and recently said the project is not working. Last year, he announced the cars would be launched in 2023.
The founder of SpaceX first announced about Optimus in the summer of 2021 at the company's AI Day. He made an actor suited in a similar robot attire dance on the stage. He said the focus in the development of a robot is to minimize labor costs. The Optimus would be friendly and can easily navigate through humans. It would be able to eliminate boring, repetitive and dangerous tasks.
However, Musk had earlier warned about the AI dangers and said the robot would be safe.
It is yet to be seen what turns up in the name of Optimus in 2023. As of now, Musk has not yet solved the driving task in self-driving cars. The robot has never been displayed in public and it is doubtful whether the creation may solve human tasks.
Musk knows how to remain in the news. He recently bought a stake in Twitter and is now a director of it. Earlier, his various tweets supported Dogecoin and this resulted in a value increase of the cryptocurrency.