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Tesla’s Elon Musk goes on a walk with Optimus Gen 2

Credit: Elon Musk/X

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Tesla’s recent video showing off Optimus depicts the second-generation humanoid robot in a different light. In a post on X, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared a video of Optimus Gen 2 walking unassisted and with its external casings removed. 

“Going for a walk with Optimus,” Musk wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. 

Elon Musk’s post is the latest video from the electric vehicle maker showing off its humanoid robot, which the CEO has noted will play a vital role in the company’s future operations. When Optimus was initially announced in August 2021, Musk noted that the humanoid robot would be designed to eliminate dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks for humans. 

Since then, the Tesla Bot program has made some serious progress. During the initial announcement for Optimus in 2021, Tesla only had a static model and a literal person in a robot suit. By AI Day 2.0 in 2022, Tesla had a working Tesla Bot prototype dubbed “Bumblebee” that was built with off the shelf parts. Bumblebee could walk on its own, though its movements were rudimentary. 

Tesla also revealed Optimus Gen 1 in AI Day 2.0, though the humanoid robot still could not move around on its own during the event. Optimus Gen 1 was quite special as it was built with Tesla’s custom designed actuators and sensors. By May 2023, Tesla shared a video of Optimus Gen 1 walking without any assistance, and by December 2023, Tesla showed off Optimus Gen 2, which features smooth, humanlike movements. 

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These improved movements were evident in Musk’s recently shared video, as they showed Optimus Gen 2 having a pretty humanlike gait. In a previous comment on X, Optimus Lead engineer Milan Kovac noted on X that 2023 had been a breakthrough year for the Tesla Bot program. 

“We’ve improved our locomotion stack, frequently walking off-gantry without falls and with a faster, increasingly more human-like walking gait. We’ve built a very low-latency & high-fidelity teleoperation system, used to collect AI training data of the bot imitating humans performing certain tasks… When the time is right, our manufacturing lines will be added to that list,” the engineer noted. 

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Tesla offers tasty Supercharging incentive as Q3 push continues

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is offering a tasty Supercharging incentive on inventory Model 3 units in Canada as it continues to push sales in the third quarter.

In the United States, Tesla is preparing for the end of the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit. While it is offering a multitude of incentives in the U.S. to help push sales of its vehicles before the credit goes away, it is not saving the deals for Americans exclusively.

Yesterday, the company announced it is now offering Free Supercharging for life on all Model 3 inventory in Canada, a massive incentive for those who would use the vehicle as a daily driver:

The deal would normally only apply to Superchargers located in Canada, meaning if a Canadian drove over the border into the United States and Supercharged, they would have to pay for it.

However, Tesla also confirmed that the charging deal would extend to the U.S. Canadians will be able to drive across the U.S. and Supercharge for free for the life of the vehicle.

Free Supercharging is such a great perk because the money an owner saves on charging factors directly into what they are saving if they were to own a gas car. While Supercharging and home charging are, on average, cheaper than filling up with gas, the savings are not massive.

When Supercharging is free, it can save consumers hundreds of dollars per month, especially if they plan to use the Tesla for their daily commute. Some people could fill their gas cars up two times a week to get to work, spending $80-$100 every five days on gas.

Tesla has been using incentives like this to push vehicles into customers’ hands. Q3 could be one of the best three-month spans in recent memory with the push it is making.

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Tesla is preparing to take on autonomy’s final boss

India’s city streets are notorious for their complexity and congestion.

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Credit: Whole Mars Catalog/YouTube

If there is any sign that Tesla is now confident about its self-driving program, it would be this. As could be seen on Tesla’s Careers page, the company is now hiring Autopilot Vehicle Operators in Delhi and Mumbai, India. 

As far as real-world traffic is concerned, one could argue that India’s city streets are the final boss of autonomous driving systems due to their complexity and congestion.

Tesla job openings

As per Tesla in its recent job openings, Prototype Vehicle Operators will be responsible for driving an engineering vehicle for extended periods and conducting dynamic audio and camera data collection for testing and training purposes. In both its job listings for Mumbai and Delhi, Tesla noted that successful applicants will be gathering real-world data on the weekends and around the clock. 

Considering the job openings in India, Tesla seems to be intent on rolling out its advanced driver-assist systems like FSD in the country. This is quite interesting, as Tesla is not hiring Prototype Vehicle Operators in other territories that recently launched, such as the Philippines. Perhaps Tesla intends to tackle FSD’s final boss of sorts before rolling out FSD in other territories.

FSD’s rollout

Tesla’s autonomous driving program uses the company’s Full Self-Driving system, which is currently available on vehicles in North America and China. Tesla, however, has a more advanced version of FSD called Unsupervised FSD, which is currently being used in vehicles that are part of the Robotaxi pilot in Austin and the Bay Area.

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Elon Musk has also recently announced on X that Tesla will be releasing FSD V14 in the coming weeks. He also shared a number of improvements that can be expected from FSD V14. “The FSD release in about 6 weeks will be a dramatic gain with a 10X higher parameter count and many other improvements. It’s going through training & testing now. Once we confirm real-world safety of FSD 14, which we think will be amazing, the car will nag you much less,” Musk wrote in his post. 

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Tesla Sweden finally makes IF Metall union give up 600-day strike

Tesla and the union have opened the door to resolutions that do not involve a collective agreement.

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(Credit: NicklasNilsso14)

After nearly two years of industrial action and sympathy strikes, Swedish labor union IF Metall has stated that it is softening its stance in its dispute with Tesla. With this, Tesla and the union have opened the door to resolutions that do not involve a collective agreement. 

Union chair Marie Nilsson told Sveriges Radio’s Ekot that while the preferred outcome remains a signed agreement, “other alternative solutions” are now on the table.

Union reconsiders rigid demands

The strike, which began over 600 days ago, has been marked by a series of strategic moves from both sides. IF Metall blocked Tesla’s access to license plates by targeting mail delivery, while Tesla bypassed the restrictions by importing vehicles in bulk through German ferries to Trelleborg, among other strategies. 

Despite the high-profile tactics, the number of active strikers has been relatively small, just about 60 in total, as noted in a CarUp report. Tesla Sweden has also maintained that it does not intend to bow down to the union’s demands. Over the 600-day strike, Tesla Sweden has adapted its operations to get around the union and its allies’ strikes.

Possible paths to ultimate resolution

Nilsson, for her part, noted that IF Metall is now willing to explore alternatives, such as embedding industry-standard terms directly into Tesla’s employment contracts or shifting Tesla’s Swedish operations to a company that already has a collective agreement.

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“You can do it in different ways. The easiest thing would be to sign a collective agreement. But when that is not possible, we have to find other alternative solutions as well, so we are open to discussion,” Nilsson stated.

IF Metall, if any, has acknowledged that Tesla has already improved working conditions in Sweden since the dispute began. Tesla Sweden has argued that its working conditions are already better than union standards, which is reportedly one of the reasons why very few company employees actually participated in IF Metall’s strike.

“There have been conversations throughout the journey where we compared our conditions. Tesla has adjusted details without going into details, they want to be a good employer, it’s about wages and conditions,” Nilsson stated.

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