Tesla's first Optimus robot comes alive, Musk says it will cost less than $20,000

At Tesla AI Day, an Optimus prototype walks across stage untethered. 

Screenshot by Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET

Tesla AI Day 2.0 jumped off to an exciting start with Optimus, Tesla's much anticipated humanoid robot, taking the stage minutes after the event began. The prototype took unsteady steps across the stage as it walked untethered. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the team is working to get the robot available as soon as possible for less money than a car at under $20,000. 

The team revealed that the hands shown on the Tesla AI Day flyers were the hands of Optimus, which is designed to have a full range of motion in its fingers, like a human. 

Optimus has biologically inspired hands, made to be useful in any setting pic.twitter.com/octnlLOYxY

— Tesla (@Tesla) October 1, 2022

The human-like functionality is not only limited to the hands, but rather, the entire robot's functionality is being modeled after a human body since the world is designed to be ergonomic to humans. The robot will have a real human form, wide range of motion and strength, said a Tesla engineer. 

The Tesla bot will be designed to do everything a human brain does such as processing vision data, making last minute decisions, as well as communicating. Tesla is using the technology from its vehicles in the robot including a battery pack and autopilot software to make this possible.

Tesla Bot walking progress - modeled inside Autopilot sim pic.twitter.com/WCrXDFel3t

— Tesla (@Tesla) October 1, 2022

Musk was passionate about what the positive effects the availability of Optimus will have on society and on the economy, claiming Optimus could have a 2x improvement in economic output. 

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