Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that the company plans to produce and deploy 5,000 Optimus humanoid robots this year. These robots will initially be used in the company’s own vehicle production and will also be made available to other companies in the future.
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Key features of the Optimus robot:
- Area of application: Support in vehicle production
- Production target 2025: 5,000 units
- Production target 2026: 50,000 units
- Sales price: Around 20,000 US dollars
Use in vehicle production
Tesla plans to use the Optimus robots in its own vehicle production from 2025. The robots are currently being used for simple tasks such as sorting battery cells on a trial basis. The aim is to further develop the robots so that they can take on more complex tasks in order to increase efficiency in production.
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Production targets and market strategy
Tesla plans to produce 5,000 Optimus robots in 2025. In the following year, production is to be increased to 50,000 units. Elon Musk described this production volume as “legion” and emphasized the importance of this scaling for the future of robotics.
The target sales price is around 20,000 US dollars per robot, with production costs amounting to around 10,000 US dollars. Musk estimates the potential market for humanoid robots at one billion units per year and is aiming to serve around 10 percent of this market. This could bring Tesla annual revenues of one trillion US dollars and make the company the most valuable in the world.
Challenges and competition
Although Tesla is pursuing ambitious goals, the company faces challenges in the further development of robot intelligence. At present, the Optimus robots are not yet able to perform demanding tasks autonomously. Other companies such as UBTech with the Walker S and Agility Robotics with Digit are already further advanced in the development of humanoid robots and are using their models in real production environments.
Conclusion
Tesla’s foray into the production of humanoid robots with the Optimus project demonstrates the company’s ambition to drive automation in the industry. The planned production of 5,000 units in 2025 and the ambitious targets for the following years underline the importance Tesla attaches to this market. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how the technology will develop and whether Tesla can achieve the goals it has set itself, especially in view of the competition from other advanced robotics companies.
