Tesla's Optimus robot has caused head shaking with its latest demonstration: The now shiny gold humanoid struggles for minutes with simple commands and sluggishly drags itself around the room. The performance raises questions about Musk's vision.
Tesla's robot flop becomes a (negative) internet spectacle
Tesla's latest Optimus demonstration is turning into a PR disaster. In a video shared by Salesforce boss Marc Benioff, the shiny gold humanoid robot visibly struggles with the simple task of answering where to get a Coke and fetching it from the kitchen. What was intended as a showcase for advanced AI integration turns out to be an embarrassing demonstration of technical shortcomings
The 52-second video shows the robot equipped with xAI's Grok voice assistant in an agonizingly slow interaction. When asked for a Coke, Optimus replies haltingly: "Sorry, I don't have ... real-time information, but I can take you to the kitchen if you want to look for a Coke there." It takes several attempts before the robot even starts to move.
According to Futurism, the robot's hands look like mannequin limbs without any dexterity - a fatal flaw for a robot that is supposed to perform complex tasks. Its wobbly locomotion is more reminiscent of a defective toy robot than the revolution promised by Elon Musk.
Stammering instead of smart assistance
Particularly explosive: Musk can be heard in the video apologetically explaining that the robot is "a bit paranoid about space" and will "be able to walk much faster". That doesn't inspire too much confidence. The Tesla boss appears to be making a visible effort to conceal the obvious weaknesses of his flagship project.
The demonstration reveals fundamental problems in voice processing and motion control. While modern voice assistants such as Alexa or Google Assistant respond to requests within seconds, Optimus needs several attempts to give a simple answer. What's more, the movements are surprisingly sluggish and uncoordinated.
The poor performance is in stark contrast to Musk's ambitious goals. The Tesla boss claims that Optimus will account for 80 percent of Tesla's enterprise value and catapult its valuation to 25 trillion dollars. Ten billion units are to be produced by 2040 - at prices of between 200,000 and 500,000 dollars per robot.
These figures seem completely unrealistic in view of current performance. Tesla has already missed its own production targets: instead of the 5,000 Optimus robots planned for 2025, only a few hundred units have been produced so far. In addition, Milan Kovac, the head of Optimus development, left the company - another warning sign of internal problems.
What do you think of Tesla's robot disaster? Are the expectations too high or is the performance actually too weak? Share your opinion in the comments.
