Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, stated on Tuesday that while the company's humanoid robot is still in the lab, it may be ready for sale by the end of next year, according to Reuters.
Several companies have placed their bets on humanoid robots to fill in for possible labour shortages and perform repetitive tasks that could be dangerous or tedious in industries such as manufacturing, shipping, warehousing, and retail.
During a conference call with investors, Musk predicted that by the end of this year, the Tesla robot, known as Optimus, will be able to carry out jobs at the plant.
For several years, Boston Dynamics of Hyundai Motor and Honda of Japan have been working on humanoid robot development.
The German manufacturer BMW and the Microsoft and Nvidia-backed firm Figure announced this year that they have partnered to introduce humanoid robots to the carmaker's US factory.
Robot sales may eventually make up a bigger portion of Tesla's revenue than other industries, including auto production, according to billionaire Elon Musk's previous statements.
Regarding the artificial intelligence capabilities, Musk stated during the Tuesday call that "I think Tesla is best positioned of any humanoid robot maker to be able to reach volume production with efficient inference on the robot itself."
Musk has a track record of not keeping his bold promises to Wall Street. He assured investors in 2019 that by 2020, Tesla will run a network of self-driving "robotaxi" vehicles.
In September 2022, Tesla unveiled Bumblebee, the first generation of their Optimus robot. A video of the second version of the bipedal robot folding a T-shirt at the company's factory was put online this year.
While Boston Dynamics presented an electric platform for its Atlas humanoid robot last week, which was seen twisting and rotating from a laying down condition to a standing and walking one, Figure published a video of its 01 robot in February that showed it preparing coffee.
