Remember when everyone was laughing at the Tesla bot Optimus? Incredibly, it was just over a year ago when people were making fun off the unstable-looking humanoid when it was first revealed at the Tesla AI Day event in October 2022.
Optimus (yes, like Optimus Prime) could just about wave, walk and perform a conservative dance. But as we predicted at the time, things have improved rapidly. We've just received a glimpse of the newest iteration of the robot, the Tesla Optimus Gen 2, and it's blowing people's minds.
Optimus Gen 2 still can't transform like its toy namesake, and it still looks funny walking, but it appears to be hugely more refined. In a post shared on X, also now owned by Elon Musk, a video shows the robot walking 30% faster than before, squatting while balancing itself, walking and holding an egg.
It's this latter demonstration that's impressing people the most. The robot's new hands, fitted with Tesla-designed sensors, appear to be precise and flexible enough to manipulate delicate objects, something that could massively expand the robot's use cases. Musk himself has said he thinks Optimus will soon be able to thread a needle. Oh, and the robot's dancing has improved too (see the end of the video above).
The overall shape of the robot also appears to have been refined, with the chest and hips slimmed down. Tesla says it has reduced weight by 10kg. Musk's plans to make Optimus ready for production this year might not quite have been met, but it does seem to be making quicker progress than with some other projects. Musk now says that Tesla plans to start using the robot in its own manufacturing operations soon. All I can say is that if it's iterated so fast in the last year, it's time to start taking Optimus seriously. In the meantime, let's just recall the hilarious unintended reference in the Tesla logo.
