Optimus Prototype
Elon Musk, the infamous CEO of Tesla, referred to this first-gen prototype as Bumble C. He informed the crowd that it was a working prototype that was built using semi-off-the-shelf materials but still featuring an in-house design architecture and design. This prototype was brought on stage by a team of engineers because they have yet to perfect the walking mechanism. So far, it seems like all the robot can do safely on its own is wave at people.
However, they did showcase a video of the robot doing menial tasks at their Freemont factory while being tethered for stability and safety purposes. In the video, you could see it lifting a box in a warehouse, a metal beam in a factory, and watering an office plant.
Musk claims that eventually, it will be able to walk and balance on its own, carry heavy loads, use basic tools with a precision grip, and understand voice commands with context. However, that kind of diverse capability is still quite a ways away. For now, this was just an initial teaser of the possibilities of this new robotic platform, which is supposed to be used to conduct menial, repetitive tasks in all kinds of work and home environments.
Specifications
The robot is expected to weigh around 160 pounds, which includes the 2.3 kWh battery pack that features Tesla battery cells. It also features the same supercomputer that is used in Tesla cars to handle its computational requirement. The company is leveraging a lot of existing Tesla technologies to make this concept a reality, including the battery management software that they developed for their energy products like the Tesla PowerWall and cars.
The company is planning to add wireless connectivity to the system to help it seamlessly tap into your smart home infrastructure. They will also add an audio support to make communication a two-way process. Finally, they plan to include hardware-level security features into the design to help protect the people around the machine.
Everything will be controlled and guided with the help of a modified version of Tesla's Autopilot advanced driver assistance system. There is no confirmation whether you will be able to actually take control of the robot as you can do with Tesla cars, but chances are that you might be able to set specific limitations when it comes to completing tasks and/or avoiding certain secure areas in your home or office space.
Price and Availability
As you can tell by the exposed internals, limited mobility and functionality, the robot is nowhere near close enough to an actual launch. In fact, it may be years before we even see a production-ready prototype. For now, it seems that the company is only trying to generate interest in the concept in the hope of attracting the investment and talent needed to finish this project eventually. Musk still claims that as long as they are able to reach a specific scale of manufacturing, he plans to sell the Optimus robot for a potentially affordable price of around $20,000.