Musk robots? Next year?!

Musk announced, via X (formerly Twitter) that his humanoid robot–Optimus–will be in low production and used, in-house, by the beginning of next year, and that it will be in high production, and used by companies, by 2026.

What is Optimus?

Musk originally unveiled a prototype of Optimus in 2022. But back then, all it could do was wave and take a few, slow steps. Last year, he unveiled the next generation Optimus which was fitted with improved features and sensors that meant it could move faster and complete intricate tasks like picking up fragile objects–like an egg–and putting them down again, with no breakages.

His goal for Optimus now, is to create a “general purpose, bi-pedal, autonomous humanoid robot capable of performing unsafe, repetitive or boring tasks”. And has told investors that Optimus “will be in the factory doing useful tasks by the end of the year” with the idea to roll it out for public use the following year, with reports suggesting that the mass production could mean each robot could cost less than $20,000 to purchase.  

Will Optimus really be available to the public by 2026?

Although Musk appears adamant that Optimus will be in commercial factories by 2026, many are wary of this bold statement as he’s well-known for massively underestimating his development timescales. Who can forget the tunnel he promised to build, in 2017, that would get people from NYC to Washington in minutes? Or the robo-taxis he promised would be on the roads by 2020? Although the robo-taxi project has actually started (unlike the tunnel project), the launch date has been pushed back, even recently from August 8th to sometime in October.

We’ll have to watch this space to see if Musk can get Optimus off the ground and into factories by 2026.