Tesla to produce ‘humanoid’ robots next year – Musk

Electric-vehicle manufacturer Tesla plans to introduce humanoid robots for internal purposes starting next year, with plans for broader production by 2026, the company’s chief executive Elon Musk has revealed.

Posting to X on Monday, Musk said the robots will be in “low production” at the company’s factories. He said they will “hopefully” be in high production for other companies in 2026.

The announcement comes after the CEO said in April that the Tesla robot Optimus would be able to perform factory tasks by the end of this year and could be ready for sale by the end of 2025.

Tesla first unveiled plans to work on humanoid robots in 2021 at an AI Day event. A year later, the company unveiled Optimus, dubbed Bumblebee, saying that its expected cost will be less than a Tesla car and that it would be manufactured in large numbers.

Musk said at the time that many robots that came before the Tesla bot were “missing a brain” and don’t have the intelligence to navigate the world on their own. He said Optimus will be an “extremely capable robot” and with a reasonable price tag of less than $20,000.

“Optimus is going to be incredible in five or ten years, like mind-blowing,” Musk claimed.

READ MORE: Musk unveils humanoid robot

Humanoid robots are made to resemble and act like humans, imitating facial expressions and movements.

Several companies, including Japan’s Honda and Hyundai Motor’s Boston Dynamics, have been betting on humanoid robots to meet potential labor shortages in certain industries by performing repetitive tasks that may be seen as dangerous or tedious.

Musk has said previously that robot sales could become a larger part of the Tesla business than other segments, including its car manufacturing.

Valued at $1.8 billion in 2023, the global humanoid robot market is projected to soar to more than $13 billion over the next five years, according to research firm MarketsandMarkets.