The story of Optimus, the humanoid robot at the heart of Elon Musk’s growth plans for Tesla

Although Tesla became a household name as an automaker, the company announced during an AI event in 2021 that it would expand into humanoid robots.

Musk said what was then called the Tesla Bot would be 5’8″ and weigh 125 pounds. The robot would be able to deadlift 150 pounds and carry 45 pounds, but only travel around 5 mph.

Musk said the robot, built with eight cameras and the company’s Autopilot software, would make working optional

“Essentially, in the future, physical work will be a choice,” Musk said. “If you want to do it, you can, but you won’t need to do it.”

However, audience members didn’t see an official prototype that day. Instead, a man wearing a robot-themed bodysuit danced and paraded across the stage.

By January 2022, Musk had developed lofty ambitions for Tesla’s humanoid robot, which became known as Optimus.

“In terms of priority of products, I think the most important product development we’re doing this year is actually the Optimus humanoid,” he said during Tesla’s Q4 earnings call.

Musk unveiled an official Optimus prototype eight months later during Tesla AI Day. At the event, audience members watched as the robot walked across the stage, moved its limbs, and waved at the crowd.

Tesla accompanied the demonstration with a video of Optimus completing various tasks, including delivering a package and watering plants. “There’s still a lot of work to be done to refine Optimus and improve it,” Musk said. “Obviously, this is just Optimus version one. “

Tesla showed off Optimus Gen 2 in late 2023.

In a December promotional video, the company said a 30% walk speed boost and improved full-body control were among the updates for Optimus Gen 2. Footage also showed the robot doing squats and picking up an egg.

The robots’ improved capabilities highlight how quickly the larger humanoid robotics landscape is transforming.

“Everything in this video is real, no CGI,” Tesla senior manager Julian Ibarz wrote on X. All real time, nothing sped up. Incredible hardware improvements from the team.”

Although Tesla unveiled its Robotaxi and Robovan during its 2024 “We, Robot” event, the Optimus robots stole the show.

During the event, robots served drinks, answered questions, and played rock-paper-scissors. Videos of guests interacting with the robots gained traction on social media.

“One of the things we wanted to show tonight is that Optimus is not a canned video, it’s not walled off,” Musk told guests. “The Optimus robots will walk among you. Please be nice to the Optimus robots.”

However, the robots aren’t fully autonomous just yet. Analysts at Morgan Stanley said the Optimus robots at the event “relied on tele-ops,” meaning a human controlled the robot remotely. The event failed to impress Wall Street analysts and investors, resulting in Musk’s net worth falling $15 billion that October.

In May, Musk told CNBC he planned to place Optimus robots in Tesla factories by the end of 2025.

“We expect to have thousands of Optimus robots working in Tesla factories by the end of this year, beginning this fall,” Musk said. “And we expect to scale Optimus up faster than any product, I think, in history, to get to millions of units per year as soon as possible.”

He said Tesla could produce one million units by 2030.

“I think we feel confident in getting to one million units per year in less than five years, maybe four years. So by 2030, I feel confident in predicting one million Optimus units per year — it might be 2029,” he said.

Tesla’s Q1 2025 update said the company is “on track” for its Optimus builds on its Fremont pilot production line.

However, Chris Walti, the former team lead for Tesla’s robot, told Business Insider that humanoid robots may not be an ideal fit in factories.

“It’s not a useful form factor. Most of the work that has to be done in industry is highly repetitive tasks where velocity is key,” Walti said.

During Tesla’s earnings call in April, Musk said Optimus production was affected by supply chain issues in China. Tesla uses rare-earth magnets from China to power the robot’s actuators.

China requires an export license for certain rare-earth materials, which pushed Tesla to look for alternative sources. Beijing paused exports of specific rare-earth elements in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Additionally, Musk said China needed reassurance that the magnets Tesla acquires wouldn’t be used for a weaponized system or in other robots.

“Tesla as a whole does not need to use permanent magnets, but when something is volume constrained, like an arm of the robot, then you want to try to make the motors as small as possible,” Musk said.

At the time, Musk said Tesla was “working through” the issue with China and hoped to get a license.

Tesla has changed its strategy for training the Optimus robot.

The company will now primarily use video recordings of humans performing tasks to train the robots instead of motion capture suits and teleoperation.

The company believes stepping back from teleoperation and motion capture suits will allow Tesla to scale data collection faster, insiders told Business Insider last month.

The pivot underscores Musk’s belief that AI can complete complex tasks using cameras. He’s used a similar approach when training Tesla’s autonomous driving software.

Musk has hyped up the newest model of Optimus multiple times on X, including in July when he said, “Optimus 3 will have agility roughly equal to an agile human.”

More recently, Musk called Optimus V3 “sublime” in an X post on Sunday.