Tesla has a lot of work to do on its Optimus robot
- Reference: 1664800475
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/10/03/tesla_optimus_prototype/
- Source link:
While the demo was certainly more robotic than last year's [1]dancer in a onesie , the lumbering mess of cables was far from the sleek and sexy design faithful Muskites might expect from the EV maker.
CEO and founder Elon Musk [2]said before the curtains opened : "I do want to set some expectations with respect to our Optimus robot. As you know, last year it was just a person in a robot suit, but we've come a long way and, you know, compared to that, it's going to be impressive."
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But in a world accustomed to the back-flipping bots of Boston Dynamics, Optimus was less than impressive. A mechanical engineer stepped in to inform the audience that this was the first time the robot was run "without any backup support – cranes, mechanical mechanisms, no cables, nothing."
[4]
Tesla's 'rough development robot'
The prototype managed to rotate its arms, then tottered to the forefront to give the audience a wave, before walking back as a screen failed to close. "This is essentially the same self-driving computer that runs in Tesla cars by the way," an Autopilot engineer proclaimed.
The event then showed videos of the robot picking up and putting down objects, and watering plants. "What you saw ... was our rough development robot using semi-off-the-shelf actuators. But ... we actually have an Optimus bot with fully Tesla-designed and built actuators, battery pack, control system, everything."
[5]
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This version, which was then pushed onto the stage, was a little more "Tesla" – slimmer, neater, shinier. Only one problem: it can't walk. "I think it will walk in a few weeks," Musk said, "but we wanted to show you something that's fairly close to what will go into production."
Clumsily wheeled out by staff, it also managed a couple more waves and did the splits from the rod on which it was mounted.
[7]Tesla faces Autopilot lawsuit alleging phantom braking
[8]Tesla wants to take machine learning silicon to the Dojo
[9]Remember the humanoid Tesla robot? It's ready for September reveal, says Musk
[10]Tesla promises to build robot you could beat up – or beat in a race
"Our goal is to make a useful humanoid robot as quickly as possible," Musk said. "We've also designed it using the same discipline we use in designing the car, which is to say to design a form of manufacturing such that it is possible to make the robot in high volume at low cost with higher liability.
"You've all seen very impressive humanoid robots demonstrations, and that's great, but what are they missing? They're missing a brain. They don't have the intelligence to navigate the world by themselves. They're also very expensive and made in low volume. Optimus is designed to be an extremely capable robot but made in very high volume – ultimately millions of units – and it's expected to cost much less than a car, so probably less than $20,000."
[11]
That's one expensive Roomba.
Accepting that there was "a lot of work to be done to refine Optimus and improve it," Musk said the aim of the event was convince more AI and mechanical engineers to join the company to bring the project "to fruition at scale" and "help millions of people."
He then waxed lyrical about an economy where there was "not a limitation on capita," which could then become "quasi-infinite," implying that he hopes Tesla's robots might one day replace humans on production lines.
[12]
"This means a future of abundance," he said. "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."
As if to reference his belief that [13]AI is humanity's "biggest existential threat," he added: "Obviously, we want to make sure that transformation is a positive one and safe," claiming that Tesla's public ownership model was the right way to achieve this.
While not quite the disasterpiece of the [14]Cybertruck reveal , going by what was shown at the AI Day, such a utopia is still far away. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUP6Z5voiS8
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODSJsviD_SU
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YzsHHuYJl46MuiDDlIZzrwAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/10/03/optimus.jpg
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YzsHHuYJl46MuiDDlIZzrwAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YzsHHuYJl46MuiDDlIZzrwAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/30/tesla_phantom_braking/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/24/tesla_supercomputer_dojo/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/05/tesla_musk_robot/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/20/tesla_ai_day/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YzsHHuYJl46MuiDDlIZzrwAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YzsHHuYJl46MuiDDlIZzrwAAAEY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/2/18053418/elon-musk-artificial-intelligence-google-deepmind-openai
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2019/11/22/smashing_tesla_cybertruck/
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The richest man in the world
..sees humanities problems as not having someone cheap enough to water your plants for you.
Of course he doesn't see any problem in making the bottom third of the population redundant. When he says "you will have whatever you want in terms of products and services", of course he means only those people who still have jobs.
So not exactly
Optimus Prime then?
Re: So not exactly
Optimus Subprime. Didn't you watch AI Day 1?
"Liability"?
Musk said. "We've also designed it using the same discipline we use in designing the car, which is to say to design a form of manufacturing such that it is possible to make the robot in high volume at low cost with higher liability."
I hope this was a typo. Seems "liability" should have been"reliability"... Maybe foreshadowing?
"That's one expensive Roomba."
I tried Roomba a few times over the last 5 years and it did 80% of what I was hoping it would do and cost $500. At 80% I still had to vacuum and it would get stuck, and cleaning it was not much fun. So I felt it was a $500 experiment that ended up being worth nothing.
Not sure I'd pay $20K for a vacuum, but if it mowed and washed windows, and carried a few gallons of water to the end of the driveway for the flowers, oh and I suppose it would make pretty good security bot; at that point a few thousand a year might well be worth doing.
Oh- and if it can clear snow - then it would be well worth it!
Not even 80%
Watching the film of the robot at work, I immediately thought "I've seen small-arm robots doing that far more efficiently".
While the idea is interesting, with the exception of the walking (which has been done better by others) this really looks to be not much better than we had before, decades ago.
If you let it roam around outside, you're going to need a separate security bot to stop someone nicking it, stripping it down and selling it for parts.
What's the point of a humanoid robot?
The human body is the shape it is because of evolution; bipedalism has evolved the way it has because it evolved from quadrupedalism, there are inherent stability problems (which is why human infants can't walk at birth, whilst other animals, such as baby deer, can). In fact, due to the way the pelvis has evolved to both support bipedalism and encompass the birth canal, human infants can't do very much at all, as they have to do a lot of development post-partum.
Designing robots to look like humans might be necessary if you want to build a convincing sex-bot, but other than that, why not design the form to fit the function, and not worry about pleasing perverts.
If you wanted to design a robot which can walk efficiently (rather than one on wheels or tracks), why not give it four legs, which at least removes the need to design expensive and complex balancing systems to move the centre of mass about to avoid falling over when walking.
I mean, you wouldn't design a computer vision system to mimic the evolutionary mistakes of the human eye, such as putting the blood vessels on the inside, resulting in a blind spot, or using materials for a flexible lens that stiffen over time, resulting in the gradual drift of minimum focal length.
Having said that, maybe that does explain Tesla's computer vision and navigation systems.
Re: What's the point of a humanoid robot?
The point isn't to build a robot that can walk efficiently or even effectively. The point is to pump up Tesla stocks and maybe con a few more investors, and this pile of junk that makes 1950's Disney animatronics look cutting edge is doing a very good job at what it was built for.
Re: What's the point of a humanoid robot?
Watching a baby start walking on all fours, then gradually moving to semi-upright and eventually running around is a great illustration of how our evolution has happened... but will we eventually evolve to having a 3 year-old sit in a Tesla and telling it to drive across town? But I think that we will keep walking ... even if it's only going to the front door to pickup an Amazon delivery.
Not reviewing well
Most of the reviews I've read could be summarised roughly as "walks like an old man who just crapped himself".
Dear Mr Musk
"You've all seen very impressive humanoid robots demonstrations, and that's great, but what are they missing? They're missing a brain."
A person could almost get the impression you were speaking about yourself...
Adundance
"This means a future of abundance,"
Abundance of what? Jobs?
"implying that he hopes Tesla's robots might one day replace humans on production lines"
Oh, maybe not.
"A future where there is no poverty"
How will that work? Will the robots be dumped in a hole in the Congo to mine minerals for their own construction?
Re: "This is essentially the same self-driving computer that runs in Tesla cars by the way," an Autopilot engineer proclaimed.
The robot then proceeded to run over a cyclist and slam into the side of a large semi truck.
Quite. When his cars start obeying the first law, let me know
The robot just needs to get a make-over and become good enough at sex and humanity is doomed.
OK, no hand jobs from Mr Terminator =>