Earlier this year, Elon Musk said that the Optimus robot being developed by Tesla will begin to be sold to customers as early as 2025. This robot has been developed since 2021 with the hope that it will be used in the Tesla factory to replace human workers. But in a tweet sent yesterday, Musk said Optimus sales will be delayed to 2026 anyway. However, this post has been deleted.
No reason was given why the sale of the robot should be delayed for a year. It is very likely that what Musk promised is not comparable to what Optimus is capable of doing in the real world. From the beginning the three-year plan given by Musk to commercialize Optimus was seen as unrealistic.
During the launch event a human wearing a suit as if Optimus was used as a gimmick. In the next launch event, Optimus was only able to limp and connect to a cable. The demo shown was later found to be fake because the robot was controlled by a human instead of operating independently.
Boston Dynamics developed the Atlas robot for 10 years before offering it to customers for use in warehouses and construction sites. Tesla promising a robot with the same capabilities in three years is very out of touch with the real world. With this, Optimus becomes another project under the leadership of Elon Musk like the Cybertruck, SpaceX Starship, the new Tesla Roadster and the Tesla Semi that has been delayed for years from the original promise.