Tesla Optimus humanoid robot

Announced in 2021 and shown as a working prototype in September 2022, Optimus is Tesla's general-purpose humanoid robot — an attempt to apply the company's AI, batteries, motors and manufacturing know-how from cars to a walking, working machine.

Successive generations have improved markedly: faster walking, lighter build, and dexterous hands with multiple degrees of freedom and tactile sensing, demonstrated handling objects, sorting parts and performing factory tasks. Tesla has begun deploying early units inside its own factories and is building production lines for them.

Optimus remains very much an R&D program — autonomous, affordable household robots are still years away, and many flashy demos have involved teleoperation. But building a credible humanoid robot at all is an enormous undertaking, and Tesla's combination of AI talent, vertical integration and manufacturing scale makes it one of the most serious efforts in the field. Musk has argued it could ultimately be the company's most valuable product.