Tesla, the electric car and solar-making company led by Elon Musk, has unveiled an additional product aimed at captivating customers: the Tesla Bot. Musk introduced this bipedal robot in 2021, and the company recently shared an update on its progress through a 65-second video.
When it comes to bipedal robots, the standards are quite high, thanks to Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, which is capable of performing flips and somersaults. However, Musk clarified that Tesla’s intention is not to entertain people with the robots’ acrobatics. Instead, the Tesla Bot is designed to take over repetitive, dangerous, or tedious tasks typically performed by humans.
It’s worth noting that the video itself doesn’t contain anything particularly thrilling that would keep you on the edge of your seat. Nevertheless, for both Tesla enthusiasts and technology enthusiasts, there are some exciting developments showcased in the video below.
The video begins with a Tesla bot demonstrating its bipedal gait, followed by a bunch of them proceeding somewhere. The scene in the next frame can be easily misread as one from a zombie movie where the bots are seen walking in a Tesla factory. An alternate explanation could be that the bots, too, have been bugged by Musk missing his dates for the Cybertruck launch and are determined to take matters into their own hands.
Tesla quickly diverts your attention to the “motor torque control” feature in its robot, where it can rapidly control the speed of its movement in response to an approaching egg (moved forward by a human) and not smash it.
Next, one sees how the Tesla bot can use its onboard cameras and sensors to explore its environment and memorize it. This would be handy when the robot is deployed in a new environment and will not need to be fed maps and data to make it aware of its surroundings before it can work.
The clip also shows how the bipedal robot is being trained using human inputs and can use its hands and fingers to perform increasingly complex tasks. This is the kind of skill general-purpose robots are expected to master before they can be sent out in the field.
Tesla hasn’t put out any date on when the robots could be ready for home or office use, which means that they are far away from deployment even by Elon Musk’s standards which consist of overly ambitious goals and deadlines.
Unfortunately, the clip ends with the bipedal robots ditching the Cybertruck and walking toward the camera, which looks like they are coming for the viewer. Hopefully, the next bot update either shows an improvement in the gait or skips us offering it on many occasions. It’s a bipedal robot. We get it.
