A new Tesla patent appears to describe Optimus’ new hands. It looks like they will include soft touch sensors that can follow the curves of its hand. The design combines flexible sensing layers with manufacturing methods for fitting them around rounded areas, such as fingers, thumbs and palms.
The goal is to let Optimus feel contact, just like a human. This would enable it to feel the amount of force and pressure that would otherwise be difficult to measure with rigid or flat sensors.
Tesla's Flexible Touch Sensor
The patent was published today, but was filed by Tesla on September 11, 2025, and claims priority to a provisional filing from earlier in 2025.
The drawings in the patent application show sensor sections on the thumb, palm and fingers. Each section can contain multiple independently monitored sensing regions, described as pixels. These regions could help identify where an object touches the hand and given enough sensing pixels, it could potentially even detect what kind of object it is, based on touch alone — much like a human.
The filing also describes integrating the sensors into a flexible outer skin for a humanoid robot, or even other uses such as tools and automated systems.
How the Sensors Turn Pressure Into Signals
The structure of the sensors are much like a layered sandwich. Two flexible sheets carry conductive patterns, with a deformable separator between them. Overlapping conductive regions form individual sensing locations.
Tesla describes capacitive and resistive versions. In the capacitive design, pressure compresses an insulating separator and brings the conductive regions closer together. That changes capacitance, the ability to store electrical charge, which connected electronics can measure.
In the resistive design, the middle layer uses a material whose electrical resistance changes when squeezed. Electronics detect the change and register physical contact or pressure.
Curved Robot Sensors
One manufacturing approach starts with a flat material. Conductive ink is screen-printed onto flexible sheets. The sheets are are then heated and shaped over a mold. After cooling, the sensor stack retains its curved form.
The second approach reverses that sequence. A base is shaped first, then conductive patterns are added directly to its curved surface. Options include dispensing conductive ink with a positioning system, transferring ink with a flexible printing pad, or using a laser to prepare selected areas for metal plating.
Real-Life Uses
In practice, contact information from several parts of the hand could help a robot adjust its grip when handling objects, use appropriate pressure for the object its handling and potentially detect the type of object based on the shape it “feels” in its hand.
The curved surfaces will also make tactile coverage easier to integrate into robot hardware, while allowing for far more pressure sensors.
While the patent application did not specifically name Optimus, we know that Tesla has been developing the third gen version of Optimus and Musk has been excited about the progress the team was making on its hands specifically.
Tesla has stated that it won’t show off Optimus Gen 3 like it originally planned until its close to production to prevent from being copied.
