Tesla recently shared an update video featuring the most recent capabilities of its humanoid robot, Optimus. The update video was posted less than a week after the company’s “We, Robot” event, which showcased a number of Optimus robots walking around and interacting with the event’s attendees.
The 90-second video update was posted by Tesla through its official Tesla Optimus account. The video highlighted a number of new capabilities for Optimus, such as its more confident walk and its current ability to explore unseen spaces autonomously, avoiding people and obstacles using neural networks. While these are impressive in their own right, Tesla’s next updates for its humanoid robot were very notable.
For one, Tesla noted in its video that multiple Optimus robots would be able to build a shared understanding of their surroundings which they can later tap into for navigation. This suggests that large fleets of Optimus robots would be able to learn from each other, making them more effective workers in areas like factories.
Navigating by myself pic.twitter.com/CeFSqCcy5I
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) October 17, 2024
Also notable in Tesla’s Optimus update video was a first look at the humanoid robot’s charging system. As could be seen in the video, Optimus is now able to locate, navigate, and dock with its wall-mounted charger autonomously. After its charging session, Optimus is able to undock itself from its charger and return to work.
The Tesla team has made a lot of headway into making Optimus more useful in factories. This was highlighted in the recent video in sections showing how Optimus is now capable of carrying heavier loads and even climbing up some stairs. Tesla’s Optimus update video ended with the humanoid robot serving food and drinks to members of the Tesla team.
While we were busy making its walk more robust for 10/10, we’ve also been working on additional pieces of autonomy for Optimus!
— Milan Kovac (@_milankovac_) October 17, 2024
The absence of (useful) GPS in most indoor environments makes visual navigation central for humanoids. Using its 2D cameras, Optimus can now navigate… https://t.co/R448099uEQ
As noted by Milan Kovac, VP, Head of Engineering for Optimus at Tesla, there is still a ton of work that needs to be done, but the humanoid robot’s development is making some serious progress.
“Optimus started learning to interact with humans. We trained its neural net to hand over snacks & drinks upon gestures / voice requests. All neural nets currently used by Optimus (manipulation tasks, visual obstacles detection, localization/navigation) run on its embedded computer directly, leveraging our AI accelerators. Still a lot of work ahead, but exciting times!” Kovac wrote in a post on X.
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