Elon Musk delays Tesla Optimus humanoid robot timeline

Elon Musk has delayed the rollout of the Tesla Optimus humanoid robot compared to a timeline shared just a few months ago.

Despite Musk’s threat not to build AI products at Tesla if he doesn’t get 25% control of the company, the CEO has already restructured the company around its AI products, including its humanoid robot: Tesla Optimus.

The idea is to leverage Tesla’s existing technologies to develop a humanoid general-purpose robot that can perform dangerous or repetitive tasks in different industrial or commercial purposes. Eventually, Tesla aims for the robot to also be used by consumers in their homes.

Last year, Tesla unveiled “Optimus Gen 2”, a new generation of its humanoid robot.

When it comes to a timeline, Musk said just a few months ago that he believes that Optimus will be used to perform real tasks inside actual Tesla factories by the end of the year.

Furthermore, Musk said that he believes Tesla could start selling the robot to customers outside of the company by the end of 2025.

Now, the CEO has updated the timeline saying that Optimus will go in “low production for Tesla internal use next year,” and the company is aiming for “high production for other companies in 2026”:

Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026.

That’s about a year delay compared to the last timeline.

Interestingly, Tesla already claimed last month that it has 2 Optimus humanoid robots working autonomously in its factories.

Electrek’s Take

As I previously stated, I think humanoid robots are going to be a thing and I do believe that Tesla has some valuable tech expertise that applies to this segment.

However, you should never believe Elon’s timelines.

He always announces super optimisitcs timelines that end up being pushed, like it has been the case for almost 6 years with “Full Self-Driving.”

Now it begins for Optimus with the first delay.

At least, with Optimus, Tesla is not using Elon’s promises to sell cars.