Suspicions have been raised that some of the humanoid robot “Optimus,” which Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled on the 10th local time, was operated by human remote control.
Musk brought dozens of Optimus at a public Robo (unmanned) taxi event held on the 10th, introducing that “robot has developed dramatically every year,” showing the robot dressed as a bartender and serving drinks to participants.
“Optimus robots will walk between you, so please be kind,” Musk said, “and you can get right up to the robot, and it will serve you a drink at the bar.”
However, according to U.S. IT media outlets Electrek and The Verge, a tech expert Robert Scobble, who attended the event on the same day, said he was told by a Tesla engineer that “Optimus operates on its own with artificial intelligence (AI) while walking between crowds, but other actions have remote human support.”
The outlets pointed out that Tesla employees next to each Optimus were seen holding a device that appeared to be a remote signaling device in their hands.
In addition, if you look at the video posted on X, when asked to an Optimus, “How much of you are AI?” Optimus said, “We’ll find out later,” and then again, “It might be a little bit” after being questioned “some or not.”
“Our understanding is that these robots did not operate entirely autonomously, but instead relied on remote operations — human intervention — so they stopped short of demonstrating freedom and agility,” Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a customer note the day after the event.
Tesla did not respond to media requests for comment on the allegations.
“The bottom line of all this is that Tesla seems to be hiding the truth, as it often does,” media outlet Electrek noted.
“The potential of Optimus seems huge, but it is reprehensible that humans appeared to have remotely controlled some of the robots at last Friday’s event,” financial media outlet Barrens said in a statement on Wall Street’s assessment of the robo-taxi event.
However, Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu gave Tesla a buy rating and set a target price of $295, offering a model for Tesla to sell 200,000 robots for $50,000 per unit in 2035, Barrens said.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
