Tesla Optimus humanoid robot needed human help at AI event

• But since then a minor controversy erupted: It turns out that humans were helping to operate the robots at the event, where the robots milled among attendees and served drinks.
• It took the autonomy out of autonomous robot.

Tesla responded Thursday by posting a video on X bragging about the robot's capabilities in what was seen as an attempt to provide assurances that the demonstration wasn't all smoke and mirrors.

• "It can now explore unseen spaces autonomously, avoiding people and obstacles using neural nets running on its computer" and "can now also pick up significant payloads," according to text presented on the video, which showed Optimus walking around a Tesla facility.

Catch up quick: At the event last week, Musk said Optimus will eventually cost about $20,000 to $30,000, though he acknowledged it'll "take us a minute" to get there.

• He said Optimus "will basically do anything you want," like mow the lawn, buy groceries or walk the dog.
• "You can have your own personal R2D2, C3PO," he said.

Yes, but: Optimus engineer Milan Kovac acknowledged Wednesday in his own message on X that "of course they were human assisted to some extent to help showcase our vision of an amazing future."

• Musk did not respond to an Axios request for comment.

What they're saying: "So it was more a demonstration of degrees of freedom and agility," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a research note.

• "Overall, we did not pick up on anything new/novel about Optimus that clearly showed significant progress including little incremental detail from the company that the market was not previously aware of," he said.
• For investors hoping for a profitable and efficient Tesla, the fact that immense work remains to be done on Optimus indicates that "cost estimates may still be too low," Bernstein analyst and Tesla bear Toni Sacconaghi wrote in his own note.

My thought bubble: When robots aren't robotic, you know they've still got a long way to go.