Tag: tobot

In Elon Musk's ambitious future plans, the Optimus humanoid robot is considered a key component, even predicted to become a more significant revenue source than electric vehicles, with a target of 5000 units produced annually by 2025. However, The Information reports that the actual production progress of the Optimus humanoid robot is far behind expectations, making the original production target almost impossible to achieve. Tesla has currently only produced a few hundred Optimus humanoid robots, while a large number are sitting idle in the factory due to a lack of complete hand and forearm components. The main problem lies in the challenges in the design and assembly technology of the robotic arms, thus hindering overall production. In its recently released Q2 2025 fiscal year financial report, Tesla reported revenue of $225 billion, a 12% decrease compared to the same period last year, marking the largest quarterly decline in nearly a decade. Net profit also decreased by 16% to $11.7 billion. Elon Musk further revealed that challenges will continue in the coming quarters, especially with the gradual withdrawal of electric vehicle subsidies in the United States and intensified global market competition. Without new growth engines, overall operational pressure may further intensify. In further explanation, while Elon Musk did not directly address the difficulties in producing the Optimus humanoid robot, he emphasized that he had moderate to high confidence in the product's performance over the next five years, but could not guarantee its development in the next year or two, seemingly indirectly confirming that Optimus's development is facing a bottleneck. The main technical obstacle for Optimus lies in its hand structure design. The Information website, citing multiple sources, reported that developing a five-fingered robotic hand design that can simulate the dexterity of a human hand remains a significant challenge. Tesla hopes that Optimus's hands can handle fine motor skills ranging from moving factory materials to playing the piano, but the current design still falls short of ideal performance. However, opinions within the industry are divided on whether it is necessary to insist on a "humanoid" hand design. Some believe that there are already many more practical and simpler ways to grasp objects on the market, which can complete most tasks at a lower cost. Even within Tesla, some employees believe that not every Optimus needs to be equipped with a five-fingered robotic hand, especially when performing specific factory tasks, where the robot does not necessarily need a human-like hand design. High-level personnel changes and litigation disputes have cast a shadow over the project. Besides technical difficulties, recent personnel and legal issues have brought more uncertainty to the Optimus project. In June of this year, Milan Kovac, the engineering director in charge of the Optimus project, left the company and was replaced by Ashok Elluswamy, the head of the AI ​​team. Subsequently, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Proception, founded by a former employee, accusing it of stealing confidential Optimus hand-related technology. According to the lawsuit, billions of dollars have been invested in Optimus development to date, demonstrating that Tesla views it as a core asset for its long-term future strategy, thus highlighting Tesla's emphasis on the Optimus project and even its massive R&D investment. Despite Tesla's continued emphasis on the application potential of Optimus, actual progress has been quite slow. Currently, about 50 Optimus robots are being tested at the Palo Alto R&D center in California. These robots perform tasks such as walking and grasping under human supervision, but large-scale deployment is still some distance away. Although Elon Musk once predicted that Optimus would push Tesla's market value to $2 trillion, 26 times its current value, the market has begun to have doubts about these optimistic expectations in the face of weak electric vehicle sales and slow progress in robot development.