Tech Byte: Tesla’s humanoid robots

Elon Musk isn’t settling for just space- he’s reaching for the stars again as he now wants to make human-like robots. This week’s Tech Byte takes a look at his latest project in the works.

Tesla’s CEO thinks his latest idea is out of this world- Elon Musk says Tesla already makes robots on wheels – why wouldn’t a humanoid robot be any different? Musk announced at the company’s recent AI Day that they’re working on the Tesla Bot. He says it will be friendly, of course, and eliminate dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks. Musk says labor is the foundation of the economy, but he believes in the future, physical work will be a choice. If you want to do it, you can, but you don’t need to.

That’s what this robot is for. You can run away from it, and most likely overpower it. The robot is only 5’8″, and 125 pounds, after all. It’s got cameras, a computer – it will use a lot of the same tools Tesla uses in its cars.

Musk says the biggest challenge with a humanoid robot is if it can navigate through the world without being explicitly trained, or getting specific instructions? Users should be able to tell it to do certain tasks, like pick up some groceries at the store. And for those of us who don’t enjoy grocery shopping, it’s something to look forward to.

Musk says he thinks they’ll have a prototype of the Tesla Bot sometime next year.