Tesla Bot Humanoid Robot Is Elon Musk's Latest Obsession

The illustrious Elon Musk can be credited for many things, but the tech luminary has also been criticized for some rather unorthodox ideas, projects, and even statements. Best known for Tesla EVs, SpaceX rockets, and a Boring company, Musk is now setting his sights on what could be his most eccentric project to date, excluding the Neuralink brain chip. The man who has been publicly distrustful of AI has just unveiled the makings of a humanoid robot that, when taken together with the Starlink constellation of Internet-bearing satellites, would probably make some people worry about the future.

Granted, the "Tesla Bot" revealed at the company's AI Day looks nothing like the frightening humanoid machines of science fiction. It looks more like a specially designed store mannequin with a featureless head. More importantly, it looks unintimidating and feels like something you could take down if necessary.

That's part of the assurance that Musk tried to make during the "one more thing" part of the presentation. At 5'8" high and 125 lbs heavy, the Tesla Bot is designed with lightweight materials and limited to a speed of 5 mph so that humans can overcome it in an emergency. Of course, it's also made to be stronger than humans in order to help perform dangerous, repetitive, or boring (not drilling) tasks.

The Tesla Bot is also meant to showcase and test Tesla AI chops and its Dojo supercomputer that's primarily designed to get cars around without human interaction. In other words, Tesla Bot would pretty much be like a self-driving Tesla car in humanoid form, complete with "human-level" hands and a variety of electromechanical actuators for smoother movement.

The humanoid will likely raise some eyebrows, but that has never stopped Elon Musk before. That said, some might be of the opinion that Tesla needs to focus more on promised vehicles rather than yet another moonshot distraction. Musk believes a prototype could be ready next year.