Over 1,000 Optimus robots will work at Tesla factories in 2025

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said more than 1000 Optimus robots will work at the electric vehicle maker’s factories by 2025. This announcement comes as the company has officially entered the robotics era at its manufacturing facility.

Tesla confirmed that two Optimus are already working in the factory autonomously. However, the company didn’t reveal its tasks. Optimus is a humanoid robot designed for both industry and consumer-based requirements. However, the company is still in the initial testing phase and waiting for mass production.

While delivering a speech at the 2024 Tesla Annual Shareholders Meeting, Musk detailed the future of this product category for Tesla shareholders. He said the entire value of the S&P 500 is around $45.5 trillion based on data from FactSet and Optimus could be worth almost half of that number.

Optimus made its first appearance at 2021’s AI Day event in a fictional human-like form. In the past three years, the company has made several new improvements to its dynamics and movement compared to the test version. Early this year, Tesla posted a video of Optimus folding clothes. Later, the company optimized the bot’s walk cycle and made it more stable with each step going in the right direction and less jiggling.

Tesla Optimus Robot Walking inside Tesla Facility (Source – Tesla)

Its computing system has been improved and trained by humans. Another video posted last month demos how the bot can sort objects from a production belt. The next upgrade will occur in the hand module with 22 degrees of freedom (DoF) compared to the second-gen Optimus with 11 DoF. It will give the bot more natural movement and the ability to execute complex tasks.

Musk predicted that Optimus will help Tesla to grow $25 trillion in the future. He also gave an outline of the production status, saying that the robot will have limited production in 2025 and will be tested first in factories.