At the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) CEO Council Summit, Elon Musk shared some updates on the Tesla Bot and how it could alleviate human labor shortage in the future.
During Tesla AI Day, when the company unveiled the Tesla Bot, Musk explained that the humanoid robot could be used to help with “boring, repetitive, dangerous work.” At the WSJ summit, Musk elaborated further on the primary purpose of the Tesla Bot.
“[The Tesla Bot] has the potential to be a generalized substitute for human labor over time. The foundation of the economy is labor. Capital equipment is essentially distilled labor… The fundamental constraint is labor. There are not enough people. I can’t emphasize this enough. There are not enough people. I think one of the biggest risks for civilizations is the low birthrate and the rapidly declining birthrate.
“And yet, so many people, including smart people, think there are too many people in the world and think that the population is going out of control. It’s completely the opposite. Please look at the numbers. If people don’t have children, civilization is going to crumble. Mark my words,” Musk said.
Multiple studies through the years have shown that global birth rates are declining. According to the UN Population Division, for a country to naturally replace its population, it should have a fertility rate or replacement rate of at least 2.1. Very few countries have a birthrate that meets the minimum replacement rate.
A quick look at the map below reveals many countries worldwide have a fertility rate below 2.0. For instance, China has a fertility rate of 1.7, and Japan’s is 1.4. Asia’s fertility rates seem to fluctuate between 1.0 to above 2.1.
Meanwhile, in Europe, most nations have a fertility rate below 2.1. For example, Germany has a fertility rate of 1.6, and Italy’s replacement rate is 1.3. In North America, it is below 2.1 as well. The United States has a fertility rate of 1.7, and Canada’s replacement rate is 1.5.
Some parts of the globe have fertility rates higher than 2.1, like Nigeria, which has a replacement rate of 5.4. However, births are trending on a decline. For instance, Nigeria’s current fertility rate decreased from 6.35 in the ’60s to its current rate in 2019.
Experts believe declining birth rates could slow economic growth. One study published by the University of Alabama identified some adverse outcomes of declining birth rates, including labor shortages, wage pressures, and large turnover rates. The Tesla Bot seems to be a resolution to expected labor shortages caused by low birth rates.
Tesla is due to release a prototype of its humanoid AI robot next year. The company has already started a hiring ramp for the Tesla Bot in 2022. Tesla has posted jobs mostly related to manufacturing and engineering for its humanoid robot, like postings for Controls Engineers and Engineering Technicians.
Musk shared also shared some details about Tesla’s progress with its humanoid AI robot project at the summit.
“With Tesla Autopilot and Full Self-Driving we’re effectively creating the most advanced, practical AI for navigating the world. You can almost think of Tesla as the world’s biggest company, or semi-sentient robot company. The car is already kind of like a robot on four wheels. So then, it’ll probably take the same technology and put it in a humanoid robot and make it be useful.
“Essentially, for the humanoid part, we need to develop some custom actuators and sensors and essentially use the Tesla Full Self-Driving or Autopilot or just generally speaking, real world navigation AI for the humanoid robot and I think this could be quite profound. I don’t know exactly when we will get this right, but we will get it right,” he said.
Watch Elon Musk’s WSJ interview below!
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Tesla is starting to prepare for the launch of the Optimus robot in its smartphone app, new coding strings show. Elon Musk has referred to Optimus as what will be the greatest-selling product of any kind of all time, and now, Tesla is getting ready for its launch.
Tesla’s smartphone app had several first-time mentions of the Optimus program, according to Tesla App Updates, who intially reported on the appearance. Here’s what they found:
A Dedicated “Robot” Phone Key Authentication
Tesla is working on a Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, authentication that is specifically for robots. This does not only apply to Optimus, though, as Robotaxi, which is Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing platform, might also identify vehicles within the fleet as robots as well.
Tesla shows rapid teardown of Model S and X lines, paving the way for Optimus at Fremont
Essentially, pairing your phone as a key to anything Tesla identifies as a robot to a “whitelist” of authorized devices. Optimus, Robotaxi, or other products that fall into this category will only respond if the device trying to communicate with it is authorized.
This is a great security feature that will eliminate at least face-value and low-level threats.
Home Data Collection and System Alerts
This appears to be somewhat of a neural network for Optimus within your house. There will be a dedicated screen that asks for consent to collect both video and spatial data while Optimus performs in-home tasks. Everything from vacuuming, washing dishes, dusting, and other activities will be tracked.
There will also be a comprehensive alert system that will track everything from low battery to mechanical issues.
Other Changes
Most of the changes tracked in this particular app update are related to Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, and include things such as image assets for new features, a preview of the new custom wraps feature, and other unique features.
You can check out our coverage on what is included with the 2026 Summer Update here:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) will report its earnings for the second quarter of 2026 this evening after market close, and investors and analysts are waiting anxiously to see what the company will report for the second three-month span of the year.
Analysts have already put out their expectations from a financial standpoint for the company’s second quarter, but what’s unknown is what Tesla plans to discuss during the call.
Financial Expectations
Wall Street consensus expectations put Tesla’s Earnings Per Share (EPS) at $0.53, while revenues are expected to come in around $26.4 billion.
This would compare to an EPS of $0.39 and $22.19 billion compared to Tesla’s Q2 2025. Last quarter, EPS came in at $0.41 on $22.387 billion of revenue. Additionally in Q1, Tesla beat analyst expectations, but shares dropped over 3 percent the following trading day.
What We Expect
In terms of discussions, Tesla earnings are pretty sporadic and depend on a handful of things, including current events, investor questions, and more.
Tesla uses a platform called Say to field questions from investors and analysts. These questions are what will be used during the call. Here are the top 5 from the Retail side and top 3 from the Institutional side:
Retail:
“Tesla has missed short-term guidance on robotaxi 3 earnings reports in a row, from 50% coverage of USA by end of 2025 to most recently 7 new cities in 1H26. What is keeping Tesla back from accomplishing these short term goals that they’ve set for themselves?”
“What are the main constraints to expanding robotaxi operations faster, and how do you see that lining up with Cybercab production?”
“What’s the current status of Optimus Gen 3 production ramp, initial deployment in factories, and external sales timeline/volume for 2027? What tasks can we expect the Optimus to perform by end of 2027?”
“To reward long-term Tesla retail shareholders for their loyalty, can you commit to achieving at least half of the goals outlined in your 2025 compensation plan before considering any offers to acquire or merge Tesla?”
“Why has growth of robotaxi vehicles stalled? When will we see cybercab start customer rides?”
Institutional
“Previously, you’ve said Tesla would lead the R&D while SpaceX would lead production for Terafab. Can you provide an update on how that division of responsibilities is evolving, and any additional clarity on the expected capital contributions from Tesla and SpaceX?”
“For autonomous driving, Tesla’s fleet created a huge data advantage by collecting billions of real-world miles. That advantage doesn’t yet exist for Optimus. How should we think about data availability and its impact on Optimus development?”
“Why is it necessary to limit robotaxi operations within specific zones within cities to start? Will every city have to be rolled out this way?”
Tesla will report earnings for Q2 this evening with the Shareholder Deck at 4 p.m. ET, with the call starting around 5:30 p.m. ET.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk handed Grok something no other AI company can get their hands on
Elon Musk says SpaceX will feed engineering data into Grok’s next model, avoiding restricted material.
Elon Musk said Tuesday that SpaceX will feed its internal engineering data into the next major training run for Grok, the AI model now folded into SpaceX following February’s merger. In a post on X, Musk wrote that SpaceX’s “massive corpus of world-class engineering data,” excluding anything restricted under U.S. arms export law, will be added during supplemental training of what he called the “2T run,” a reference to a roughly two trillion parameter model that would nearly double the parameters behind the latest Grok 4.5 that’s rolling out.
SpaceX’s massive corpus of world-class engineering data (excluding material blocked by ITAR) will be added during supplemental training of the 2T run.
This will dramatically improve Grok’s engineering capabilities. https://t.co/BbQEViFByn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2026
The excluded material that Musk is referring to would fall under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which restricts export of technical data tied to defense and space hardware. That likely rules out propulsion specifics for Merlin and Raptor engines along with guidance and control details for SpaceX’s launch vehicles, but leaves manufacturing knowledge, materials science, and Starlink hardware design on the table.
The announcement extends a pattern that has been building since SpaceX’s Nasdaq debut in June, when the company went public with Grok and xAI’s Colossus supercomputer folded into the pitch to investors.
Days after that listing, SpaceX closed its $60 billion all stock acquisition of coding startup Cursor, giving xAI both enterprise software distribution and a stream of real world developer data to train on. Grok 4.5 launched July 8 running partly on that Cursor training data, with Musk describing it as roughly comparable to Anthropic’s Opus 4.7 but faster and cheaper to run.
Feeding SpaceX’s own engineering data into the next AI model follows the same logic Musk has applied across xAI’s sister companies. Tesla supplies real world driving data and manufacturing expertise, X supplies conversational data, and now SpaceX supplies aerospace engineering data built up since 2002.
Musk did not give a release date for the upcoming AI model, referred to elsewhere as Grok 4.6. He has said the two trillion parameter run is in its final training phase and expected to wrap this week.
Tesla starts preparing for Optimus in its smartphone app
Tesla Q2 Earnings: Here’s what to expect
