Elon Musk is leading Tesla towards a bright future where the company is just as much an artificial intelligence company as it is a vehicle and energy company. 

Elon spoke Friday evening on September 30 at Tesla AI Day 2022 in Palo Alto, California and he introduced the world to an Optimus robot wearing a Giga Texas “Don’t Mess with Tesla” belt buckle. The belt buckle was first seen at the October 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders in which it was used to announce the moving of the Tesla HQ from California to Austin, Texas.

Elon’s unveiling of the new Optimus is also worth a big celebration, so it is appropriate the robot wears the belt buckle. This article highlights,

• Optimus is designed to be useful, affordable, and made at scale
• Optimus has great potential to transform civilization into a future of abundance
• Tesla is structured so the public can ensure a safe future in regards to Optimus
• A technical presentation followed by a Q & A reveals more about Optimus

Optimus: Useful, affordable, and made at scale

Elon Musk explains,

“Our goal is to make a useful humanoid robot as quickly as possible and we’ve also designed it using the same discipline that we used in designing the car, which is to design it for manufacturing such that it’s possible to make the robot at high volume at low cost, with high reliability.

That’s incredibly important, I mean, you’ve all seen very impressive humanoid robot demonstrations and that’s great but what are they missing?

They’re missing a brain and they don’t have the intelligence to navigate the world by themselves and they’re also very expensive and made in low volume, whereas Optimus is designed to be an extremely capable robot but made in very high volume, probably ultimately millions of units and it is expected to cost much less than a car.

I would say, probably less than $20,000, would be my guess.

The potential for Optimus is appreciated by very few people.” – Elon Musk

Optimus has great potential to transform civilization into a future of abundance

One day our civilization may be one of great abundance, as Elon Musk explains,

“The potential really boggles the mind, because you have to say what is an economy?

An economy is sort of productive entities times their productivity.

Capita times output, productivity per capita. But the point at which there’s not a limitation on capita, it’s not clear what an economy even means at that point!

Economy becomes quasi-infinite. So, taken to fruition, in the hopefully benign scenario, this means a future of abundance.

A future where there is no poverty, where you can have whatever you want in terms of products and services.

It really is a fundamental transformation of civilization as we know it.” – Elon Musk

Tesla is structured so the public can ensure a safe future in regards to Optimus

This important issue was emphasized by Elon Musk,

“Obviously, we want to make sure that transformation is a positive one, and safe.

But that’s also why I think Tesla, as an entity doing this, being a single class of stock publicly traded owned by the public is very important and should not be overlooked.

I think this is essential, because then, if the public doesn’t like what Tesla is doing, the public can buy shares in Tesla, and vote differently.

This is a big deal, like, it’s very important that I can’t just do what I want. It’s very important that the corporate entity that makes this happen, is something that the public can properly influence.

So I think the Tesla structure is ideal for that. Like I said, self-driving cars will certainly have a tremendous impact on the world.

I think they will improve the productivity of transport by at least a half order of magnitude, perhaps an order of magnitude, perhaps more.

Optimus has maybe a two order of magnitude potential improvement in economic output. It’s not clear what the limit actually even is. But we need to do this in the right way. We need to do it carefully, and safely and ensure that the outcome is one that is beneficial to civilization and one that humanity wants.

This is extremely important, obviously.” – Elon Musk

Elon Musk also explained to the audience that, 

“At Tesla, we really care about doing the right thing or are inspired to do the right thing, and really not pave the road to hell with good intentions and I think the road to hell is mostly paved with bad intentions, but every now and again, there’s a good intention in there.

We want to do the right thing.” – Elon Musk

A technical presentation followed by a Q & A reveals more about Optimus

You can watch the presentation on Tesla YouTube, and it may be best watched in parts as it is

technical.

Prior to questions and answers from the audience, Elon explained,

“We really wanted to show the depth and breadth of Tesla and artificial intelligence, compute hardware, robotics actuators, and try to really shift the perception of the company away from … you know a lot of people think we’re just a car company, or we make cool cars, or whatever.

Most people have no idea that Tesla is arguably the leader in AI hardware and software and that we are building what is arguably the first, the most radical computer architecture since the Cray-1 supercomputer.

I think if you’re interested in developing some of the most advanced technology in the world that’s going to affect the world in a positive way, Tesla is the place to be.” – Elon Musk

Many interesting points were made during the 40-minute Q & A session, including,

• There will be endless possibilities for Optimus, many different versions are planned
• You will be able to have a conversation with Optimus
• As a safety precaution, Optimus will not have over-the-air updates.  Optimus will have a safety off-switch
• Optimus should be ready for customers in 3-5 years
• Tesla may begin a monthly podcast to explain what is going on behind the scenes

CONCLUSION

The incredible new Tesla Optimus robot (wearing the Giga Texas “Don’t Mess with Tesla” belt buckle!) was unveiled on Tesla AI Day 2022 and it aims to be very affordable, made to a massive scale, and also very useful.

It has great potential to transform civilization into a future of abundance.

To ensure this is done right, Elon Musk explained that, “Obviously, we want to make sure that transformation is a positive one, and safe. But that’s also why I think Tesla, as an entity doing this, being a single class of stock publicly traded owned by the public is very important and should not be overlooked. I think this is essential, because then, if the public doesn’t like what Tesla is doing, the public can buy shares in Tesla, and vote differently. This is a big deal, like, it’s very important that I can’t just do what I want. It’s very important that the corporate entity that makes this happen, is something that the public can properly influence. So I think the Tesla structure is ideal for that.”

How do you think an Optimus Robot could make your life more abundant?

If you enjoyed this article, you may also like,

Giant fork in the road leads to Tesla’s Optimus AI Tesla’s Optimus robot is already working at the Fremont factory, and exactly how many robots are in Tesla’s fleet? Elon Musk installed a giant 30ft fork in the road created by Burning Man artist Hunter Leggitt outside the Autopilot office in Palo Alto, will this be a permanent art installation?

Read Elon Musk’s essay on technology for a better future Elon Musk is optimistic, lives with a sense of urgency, and takes action to make the future good. His essay is an inspiration to all people, and here he talks about exciting uses for the Optimus humanoid robot!

Who will Benefit once Tesla Autonomy is Solved? I believe a world where autonomy is the norm is closer than we realize.  This article attempts to answer the question, who will benefit once Tesla autonomy is solved? 

_{Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Tesla – October 2, 2022. All Rights Reserved.}

^{My goal as an author is to support Tesla and Elon Musk in both making life better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.}