Tesla is teasing the hands of its humanoid Optimus robot that is going to be fully unveiled at its AI Day event later today.
Tesla is expected to hold its AI Day 2 in Palo Alto starting at 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET) today.
The automaker is going to give an update on all its different product programs related to artificial intelligence.
Tesla owners are particularly interested in the company giving some updates on when they plan to deliver on the promises made about self-driving vehicles, but the wider public is likely more interested in CEO Elon Musk saying that Tesla is going to unveil a working prototype of its humanoid Optimus robot at the event.
Ahead of the event, Tesla unveiled the hands of the robot in a tweet:
Last month, Tesla teased another version of the robot hands that looked a little less complete than these new ones.
The hands are one of the most difficult parts of creating a humanoid robot, and Tesla is setting the bar high by claiming that the robot will have “human-level” hands.
That’s a big goal, but it could be the difference maker for Tesla Bot since human-level, or near-human-level, hands can enable a lot more tasks that the robot is going to be able to complete.
The hands that Tesla is showing in the Twitter teaser don’t look quite human-level, but they do appear to have a high level of functionality.
It will be interesting to see if Tesla has achieved any breakthroughs that are going to impress roboticists.
Tesla’s main goal with the event is to recruit more AI and robotic experts by showing them what specifically they would be working on. The company has had a lot of success recruiting engineers, and part of the success has been linked to the attraction of developing AI products that are quickly shipped to customers and are less based around research.
The company said that the first version of Tesla Bot will be focused on completing simple repetitive tasks, which will make the robot useful in a factory setting.
Last week, we reported on Tesla saying that it plans to have “thousands of Humanoid Robots within its factories.”
Join us on Electrek later today for our coverage of Tesla AI Day 2.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
