During Tesla's “We, Robotic” event last week, which TechCrunch covered late into the night, sources on the ground sent me a handful of videos of the automaker's Optimus humanoid robots walking around the party, dancing, mixing drinks and talking to guests. . Most, if not all, of those who attended the event are Tesla investors and fans, so it was not surprising that the messages I received along with the videos included enthusiastic comments about how advanced the robots were.
I asked one investor, who sent me a video of an Optimus doing different voices on command, if he thought it was remotely controlled or if perhaps, incredibly, it was powered by Grok, the AI chatbot from Elon Musk's xAI. He told me that he thought it was actually Grok that allowed the robotic to talk to him. Did you ask the robotic how he could talk to him? No, he said. I was too impressed.
That seems to have been Tesla's goal: to inspire awe in a vision of the future. Others, myself included, were not as dazzled by what appears to have been sleight of hand at an event designed to generate excitement among investors and fans.
Bloomberg, The Edge, and other outlets have reported that the robots were being operated remotely by humans, a conclusion that is fairly easy to reach considering that they all had different voices and their responses and hand gestures were immediate and synchronized.
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas also wrote in a report that the robots “relied on teleoperations (human intervention).”
Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that while the Optimus prototypes could walk without external control using AI, employees stationed remotely monitored many of the interactions between the robots and attendees during the “We Robotic” event.
At least one video at the event showed an Optimus waiter acknowledging that he was being “assisted by a human.”
The humans controlling their robots raise questions about the capabilities of the technology and whether they will be ready to hit the market at a price of between $20,000 and $30,000 each any time soon.
“As you can see, we started with someone in a robotics suit and then we have progressed dramatically year after year,” Musk said in his comments last week. “So if you extrapolate this, you really have something spectacular, something that anyone could own, so you can have your own personal R2-D2. [or] C-3PO.”
“What can he do? “You can do whatever you want,” the executive continued. “You can be a teacher, take care of your children. You can walk your dog, mow the lawn, do the shopping, just be your friend, serve drinks. Anything you can think of will do.”
It seems that many investors were not convinced by Tesla's song and dance (literally, the robots did a choreographed dance). Tesla shares took an 11% hit on Friday following the event, although it was likely also a response to Musk's inability to provide information on the near-term revenue strategy for the Robotaxi, as well as specific technology updates for FSD, the automaker's advanced driver assistance system.
Some, however, don't mind that robots are controlled by humans behind the scenes.
Canaccord Genuity analyst George Gianarikas wrote: “So what!” in a note to clients on Monday.
“The dexterity displayed and the development progress shown by the robots were off the charts,” the analyst said. “And, as Mr. Musk previously noted, the robotics industry currently does not have a well-developed supply chain. “That means Tesla, with its in-house manufacturing acumen, battery expertise, motor design proficiency, electronics know-how and mechanical engineering resources, has the potential to create a long-term, vertically integrated robotics giant.”
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