Elon Musk needs to indicate off the products — however to not nosy rivals.
Throughout Tesla’s Q1 earnings name on Wednesday, buyers requested once they may anticipate to see Optimus V3, the corporate’s humanoid robotic, which Musk mentioned shall be “Tesla’s greatest product ever.”
The CEO mentioned retooling Tesla’s Model S and Model X manufacturing unit line in Fremont to start out manufacturing for Optimus is a large enterprise, and mentioned he additionally must be cautious of watchful opponents.
“We’re additionally just a little hesitant to indicate V3 off as a result of we discover our opponents do a frame-by-frame evaluation at any time when we launch one thing and replica all the pieces they presumably can,” Musk mentioned. “So I believe there’s some worth to not displaying new know-how till it is near manufacturing.”
Musk mentioned Tesla expects to start out Optimus manufacturing in Fremont round late July or August. The CEO did not identify the copycat opponents.
Tesla mentioned in a shareholder deck that progress for Optimus manufacturing is shaping up because it prepares to construct two manufacturing unit strains — one in Fremont, California, and one other at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin.
The Fremont line is anticipated to supply a million robots a yr, whereas the Texas line can have a long-term annual manufacturing output of 10 million robots, based on the shareholder deck. Musk mentioned the Texas manufacturing unit will seemingly start producing Optimus across the summer time of 2027.
Earlier in January, Tesla introduced it could discontinue the Model S and Model X to make room for Optimus manufacturing on the Fremont manufacturing unit.
Musk mentioned testing is ramping up and that Optimus may full duties exterior Tesla’s factories “someday subsequent yr.” Nevertheless, the CEO — identified for his reach-for-the-sky timelines and tasks — needed to “inject some actuality” into among the questions raised on Wednesday about Optimus.
He mentioned dismantling the manufacturing strains for Mannequin S and Mannequin X in Fremont will take “at the least a number of months,” and putting in a brand new line will take an extra “a number of months.”
“Frankly, if we’re capable of go from stopping manufacturing on one line, dismantling that complete line, reinstalling a complete new line, and turning that on in a matter of 4 months, that’s an insanely quick velocity,” Musk mentioned, including that he does not know what the manufacturing fee of Optimus shall be for 2026.
Musk additionally offered just a little extra coloration round Optimus’ present capabilities.
The CEO mentioned Optimus will begin with simple factory tasks and that he believes Tesla will have the ability to pack “plenty of intelligence” into the robotic regionally — that means Optimus ought to have the ability to carry out some duties with out an web connection.
Optimus will nonetheless want somebody to inform it what to do, Musk mentioned, utilizing the analogy of a supervisor. He mentioned the robotic will want an “orchestration AI” that may information it, which is the place Grok, the AI chatbot made by xAI, will are available.
The quantity of interplay Grok can have with Optimus may very well be minimal, Musk mentioned.
“Grok would most likely have about as a lot interplay with Optimus as a supervisor would have with the individuals on their group,” he mentioned. “That means Optimus may most likely work for a number of hours with none administration oversight.”
