Tesla to have humanoid robots for internal use next year, Musk says

[July 22, 2024]  (Reuters) -Tesla will have humanoid robots in low production for the company's internal use next year, CEO Elon Musk said on Monday, months after he announced that the rollout would be by the end of 2024.   

Tesla, X (formerly known as Twitter) and SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk speaks with other delegates on Day 1 of the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in Bletchley, Britain on November 1, 2023. Leon Neal/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

The company will have the robots in high production for other companies' use "hopefully" in 2026, Musk said in a post on social media platform X.

Musk had said in April that the Tesla robot, called Optimus, would be able to perform tasks in the factory by the end of this year and could be ready for sale as soon as the end of 2025.

Humanoid robots have been in development for several years by Japan's Honda and Hyundai Motor's Boston Dynamics. Several companies are betting on them to meet potential labor shortages and perform repetitive tasks that could be dangerous or tedious in industries such as logistics, warehousing and manufacturing.

Musk has a history of failing to fulfill bold promises to Wall Street. In 2019, he told investors that Tesla would be operating a network of "robotaxi" autonomous cars by 2020.

Tesla put out the first generation of its Optimus robot, dubbed Bumblebee, in September 2022. This year, the company posted a video of a second generation of the bipedal robot folding a T-shirt at the firm's facility.

(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)

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