All You Need is Love (and Optimus!)
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“What’s the hardest thing about being a robot?” someone asked Tesla’s Optimus. “Trying to be as human as you are!”
Well, it does look like the “biggest product of all time – of any kind”, something that Elon Musk claimed while launching Optimus to the public at the ‘We, Robot’ event at Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, California. “Whatever you can think of, it will do,” Musk beamed.
In the release video, Optimus serves drinks, makes conversations, pulls grocery bags out of cars and water plants, and plays games with the family. But that’s not all that Musk had plans for.
A swarm of Optimus robots started walking among the audience to interact with them. People have been sharing several videos of Optimus talking, making jokes, playing charades, and even answering existential questions. They are nothing short of a peek into the future.?
Optimus also asked people if they wanted to hear jokes and danced for them whenever they wanted to. It can throw up slick hand signs and speak fluent? Gen-Z lingo.
Though it was not allowed any physical contact with the audience, Optimus sang “Happy Birthday” for one of its fans after it learnt that it was his birthday. It also urged everyone around him to sing along.
In another interaction, Optimus tried to play rock, paper, scissors, with a fan. This was possible because the hands of Optimus have 22 degrees of freedom, which is remarkably close to humans.?
To some extent, it worked well as it knew the rules of the game, but it failed after two rounds as the fingers of Optimus were not able to change to the desired shapes within seconds.
“Are you smarter than humans?”?
“I am definitely smart.”?
This is exactly what Musk envisions the future to look like. “Every one of the 8 billion people on Earth would want their Optimus buddy,” said Musk, adding that the cost of the product would decline dramatically.
This version of Optimus changes everything. Estimated to be priced around $20,000 to $30,000, everyone is eventually expected to own one, exactly how Musk and other robotics companies had envisioned all along.
In March, Brett Adcock, the founder of Figure Robotics, released a demo video of its own humanoid robot conversing with a human while performing tasks, and predicted that everyone will own a robot in the future. “[It would be] similar to owning a car or phone today,” he said – hinting at the universal adoption of robots as an essential commodity in the future.
Figure released its uber-cool Figure 02 in August, which Adcock said is like giving AI a body. He also mocked Musk with a meme from the movie Captain Phillips saying, “Bring it on”. While Adcock’s capabilities are powered by OpenAI’s technology, Musk is making this vision come true with its own AI models, the details of which are not yet shared.
Not everyone is impressed though. Some people are sceptical about the capabilities of Optimus. Marques Brownlee, the famous YouTuber, posted: “This is either the single greatest robotics and LLM demo the world has ever seen, or it's MOSTLY remote operated by a human. No in-between.”
The claim is that Optimus was being teleoperated, which, according to several videos shared earlier by Tesla, proves that is possible. Though most of those videos were for training Optimus, it is still quite possible that someone from the team was actually remotely operating the humanoid.
Some even claim that the voice was also human operated as it was very picky with the questions. But the point is that regardless of this scepticism, the demo was impressive and a testament to how far the Tesla team has come.
For some, Optimus is like the Terminator. But for the techno-optimists, it looks utopian with the humanoid being able to talk, dance, and even pour us a nice drink.?
Optimus has Come a Long Way
In December last year, Optimus got a major overhaul. Optimus-Gen 2 had new actuators and sensors, and a 2 degree of freedom (DoF) actuated neck, allowing more movement. With new electric motors, there is a 30% walk speed boost, along with torque sensing, articulated toe sections, and human foot geometry.?
Almost two years ago, Musk unveiled the prototype of Optimus. It could just wave on the stage. In September of that year, it could pick up and sort objects, do yoga, and navigate through surroundings. Back then, Optimus danced with the disco lights on, and now it is making others dance. Quite a journey!?
Compared to other players, such as Boston Dynamics that work on rule-based systems, Optimus works on neural networks. When it was still in the early stages of development, not much was revealed by the company regarding how exactly it functioned. It had to be held and walked on stage.
Besides Optimus, Musk also unveiled the long-awaited Robotaxi, the Cybercab, and a larger vehicle, Robovan.?
“We’ll have a fleet on the order of 7 million that are capable of autonomy. In the years to come, it will be over 10 and 20 million. This is immense,” said the Tesla chief in July this year. “The car is able to operate 24/7, unlike the human drivers.”
Tesla anticipates the Cybercab will begin production by 2026, giving it time to refine its autonomous systems and navigate regulatory hurdles. Explicitly designed for Tesla’s upcoming autonomous ride-hailing network, the Robotaxi is expected to roll out for under $30,000, making it an affordable option in the EV market.?
Musk emphasised that the Cybercab is aimed at “individualised mass transit”, potentially enabling owners to manage fleets of these autonomous vehicles for ride-hailing services.
Click here to read the full story about Tesla’s autonomous journey and the hurdles along the way.
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