Everything we know about Optimus, the Tesla Robot

Optimus carrying a package using Tesla Vision

Tesla (Edited by Not a Tesla App)

Elon Musk started Tesla's AI Day 2022 by saying, "I want to set some expectations with respect to our Optimus Robot," just before the doors opened behind him. A robot walked out, waved at the audience, and did a little dance. Admittedly a humble beginning, he explained, "the Robot can actually do a lot more than what we just showed you. We just didn't want it to fall on its face." Musk's vision for the Tesla Robot, "Optimus is going to be incredible in five years, ten years mind-blowing." The CEO said other technologies that have changed the world have plateaued; the Robot is just starting.

Tesla's CEO envisions Optimus eventually being like Commander Data, the android from Star Trek the Next Generation, except it "would be programmed to be less robot-like and more friendly." Undoubtedly there is a long way to go to achieve what Doctor Noonien Soong created in Star Trek TNG. What was demonstrated onstage wasn't at that level, but several videos throughout the presentation highlighted what the Robot is capable of at its very early stage in development. The audience watched the Robot pick up boxes, deliver packages, water plants and work at a station at the Tesla factory in Fremont.

Development over 8 Months

The breakdown of some of the systems of the Tesla Robot

Tesla (Edited by Not a Tesla App)

The first Robot to take the stage at AI Day was not Optimus, but Bumble C, another acknowledgement to The Transformers, as Bumble Bee played a significant role in that franchise. However, Bumble C is far less advanced than Optimus, who did appear later but was on a cart.

Several Tesla engineers took turns on the microphone describing some of the most complex elements of the project that was first announced one year ago. Perhaps the best description of the project was the company moving from building a robot on wheels to a robot on legs. However, that may be oversimplifying. For example, the car has two motors, and the Robot has 28 actuators.

Overall Design and Battery Life

Tesla's brightest demonstrated how the production has come to life over the past eight months. It seems this group of computer masterminds had to become anatomist experts as Tesla took hints from the human body to create a humanoid robot. That is an essential factor in creating Optimus. Everything people interact with is made usable by a human, with two legs, two arms, ten fingers etc. If the Robot differed from what the world is already designed for, everything would have to change. However, recreating the human body and its countless movements would take far too long, so Tesla has stripped it down to less than 30 core movements, not including the hand.

Like the human torso contains the heart, the Robot's chest holds the battery. It's projected that a single charge would provide enough for a full day's work with a 2.3-kilowatt-hour battery. All the battery electronics are integrated into a single printed circuit board within the pack. That technology keeps charge management and power distribution all in one place. Tesla used lessons learned from vehicle and energy production to create the battery allowing for streamlined manufacturing and simple and effective cooling methods.

Autopilot Technology

Tesla showed what the Robot sees, and it looked very familiar. That's because the neural networks are pulling directly from Autopilot. Training data had to be collected to show indoor settings and other products not used with the car. Engineers have trained neural networks to identify high-frequency features and key points within the Robot's camera streams, such as a charging station. Tesla has also been using the Autopilot simulator but has integrated it for use with the Robot programming.

Tesla shows off what the Optimus robot sees

Tesla (Edited by Not a Tesla App)

The torso also contains the centralized computer that Tesla says will do everything a human brain does, such as processing vision data, making split-second decisions based on multi-sensory inputs and supporting communications. In addition, the Robot is equipped with wireless connectivity and audio support. Yes, the Robot is going to have conversations, "we really want to have fun, be utilitarian and also be a friend and hang out with you," said Musk.

Motors Mimic Joints

The 28 actuators throughout the Robot's frame are placed where many joints are in the human body. Just one of those actuators was shown lifting a half-tonne nine-foot concert grand piano. There have been thousands of test models run to show how each motor works with the other and how to effectively operate the most relevant actuators for a task. Even the act of walking takes several calculations that the Robot must make in real-time, not only to perform but also appear natural. The robots will be programmed with a locomotion code; the desired path goes to the locomotion planner, which uses trajectories to state estimations, very similar to the human vestibular system.

Human hands can move 300 degrees per second and have tens of thousands of tactile sensors. Hands can manipulate anything in our daily lives, from bulky, heavy items to something delicate. Now Tesla is recreating that with Optimus. Six actuators and 11 degrees of freedom are incorporated into the robot hand. It has an in-hand controller that drives the fingers and receives sensory feedback. The fingers have metallic tendons to allow for flexibility and strength. The hands are being created to allow for a precision grip of small parts and tools.

Responsible Robot Safety

Musk wanted to start AI day with the epic opening scene from Terminator when a robot crushed a skull. He has heard the fears and people warning, "don't go down the terminator path," but the CEO said safety is a top priority. There are safeguards in place, including designs for a localized control ROM that would not be connected to the internet that can turn the Robot off. He sees this as a stop button or remote control.

Optimus Price

Musk said the development of Optimus may broaden Tesla's mission statement to include "making the future awesome." He believes the potential is not recognized by most, and it "really boggles the mind." Musk said, "this means a future of abundance. There is no poverty. You can have whatever you want in terms of products and services. It really is a fundamental transformation of civilization as we know it." All of this at a price predicted to be less than $20,000 USD.

Tesla Shows Off its First Robot at AI Day 2

Tesla Updates Robotaxi App: Adds Smarter Pickups and Adds Arrow for Finding Robotaxi

Not a Tesla App

Following the first major service area expansion, Tesla is already pushing another update to the Robotaxi app and service as a whole. The new version includes more quality-of-life improvements, and most importantly, a big change to Robotaxi’s pickup logic that makes the entire experience much smoother.

Robotaxi App Update

This latest update is another one focused on polishing the user experience before Tesla adds more vehicles to the fleet and more riders to the network. The most significant change here is that Robotaxi will now navigate more dynamically. Instead of strictly travelling to the designated pickup point, the vehicle will stop where you are or navigate directly to you if you are nearby, making the pickup just that much easier.

Tesla also introduced a small batch of improvements to improve the app, which is still only available for early testers. First up is a vehicle finder arrow - which is shown in the Robotaxi app to help you find your approaching or parked Robotaxi.

This should be a big help in crowded situations, as visually distinguishing a Model Y Robotaxi from a Robotaxi Model Y is nearly impossible, barring the small Robotaxi logos and lack of a driver.

Tesla has also added in automatic dark/light mode switching to match system settings and some other minor design tweaks and bug fixes. It seems that Tesla is close to their final iterations on the Robotaxi app and will hopefully add it to the official app stores soon. However, an Android version is still MIA, and using the Robotaxi itself is still also limited to invitees, so Tesla may be waiting for those to be available before adding the app to the Apple App Store.

The full release notes for this 25.7.6 app update are listed as:

• I am pointing the way! Find your vehicle with an arrow

• Automatic light/dark mode setting to follow the system

• Design tweaks

• Bug fixes

This will be huge and make summon even better.

I didn't get to fully test it, but Robotaxi no longer strictly navigates to the pickup point. I noticed it stops right where I am if I am ahead of the pickup point.

In this video it's supposed to go to the valet, yet it stopped… https://t.co/tGR2064gB2 pic.twitter.com/p3dssaKEhf

— Owen Sparks (@OwenSparks_) July 21, 2025

A Better Summon?

The most exciting part of the update isn’t the piece for Robotaxi - but what it implies for Smart Summon instead. The new dynamic pickup logic could be a huge improvement to how Summon works. At the end of the day, it is exceptionally similar - homing in on the user or a targeted location, and then parking nearby.

Summon currently requires a line of sight, and the range is exceptionally limited, meaning you can’t use it in most larger parking lots without having to walk out halfway to meet the vehicle. It’s also slow enough that by the time you get your vehicle rolling - even with Summon Standby active - you’ll probably have walked most of the way there yourself.

A true come-to-me Summon feature that can navigate both city streets and parking lots is definitely the goalpost for customer vehicles - one that doesn’t need to be directly supervised. Robotaxi is the first real-world deployment of the same technology that future builds of Smart Summon will eventually run on.

Sometime in the near future, you’ll be able to Summon your Tesla directly to you - having it navigate the streets from wherever it found parking. All the learnings from Robotaxi are going to come fast - and they’ll all be amazing to finally get on customer cars.

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Tesla Robotaxi FSD Improvements Coming to Customer Vehicles; Global Rollout Update

Not a Tesla App

After months of no updates, Elon Musk has announced that Tesla will soon release a new FSD update, in what he’s calling a “step change improvement,” so expectations will be high for this one. The biggest change is that Tesla is merging in the changes they’ve been making for Robotaxi FSD into the consumer software branch.

Elon also provided an update on the rollout of Robotaxi to additional US cities like San Francisco, as well as FSD for other regions like Europe and China. Let’s dig in - as this is some of the most exciting FSD-related news we’ve seen in a while.

Next FSD Update

For the millions of Tesla owners using various versions of FSD (Supervised), whether on HW3 or HW4, it has been months since the last update

However, the Tesla AI team isn’t standing still. They’ve been making constant improvements to the Robotaxi version of FSD, so hearing that Tesla will integrate that version into FSD Supervised is certainly exciting.

The FSD update is expected to include a 4.5x increase in parameters, as well as better memory management and improved caching for better reaction times.

Musk says that Tesla still needs to validate that the improvements they’ve made for Austin in particular don’t cause regressions elsewhere. Regression testing is a necessary step when training neural nets, as they can learn and unlearn things extremely rapidly, as one new behavior can cause a regression in another.

We need to validate that improvements for Austin don’t cause regressions elsewhere.

For Europe and China, we are awaiting regulatory approval. Hopefully, soon🤞

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2025

How The Rollout Will Work

Essentially, we’re at a good spot here. The fact that Tesla is now working on merging Robotaxi FSD into FSD Supervised is a good sign, even if there’s work to be done. We expect these builds to go out to the FSD testing fleet (not the Robotaxi validation testers we’ve seen throughout Texas). These dedicated testers will make sure there are no regressions - and once they give the thumbs up, the standard rollout process begins. Given that the Robotaxis are running HW4 and Tesla is merging Robotaxi FSD into FSD Supervised, we expect this to be an HW4-only rollout.

Once validation is complete, Tesla will likely roll out the update to employees, followed by early access influencers (and potentially also Early Access Program members). Once it is in their hands and we see good progress there, it’ll begin rolling out to customers en masse.

Elon commented on X last night, saying they’re looking good for Q3 release, which puts us in the September timeframe.

Global Rollout Status

Elon also provided an update on two other items - launching Robotaxi in other cities, and launching FSD into other markets - and made it clear that the next hurdle isn’t on Tesla, it is on regulatory approval. Bureaucratic red tape seems to be the biggest obstacle to Tesla’s autonomy ambitions lately - but it is progressing well in some regions, such as Australia.

For the Bay Area, as well as potentially other cities that Tesla is considering, such as Phoenix, Arizona, approval is pending from regulators. Elon mentioned that regulators were being reasonable, which isn’t something we hear often.

As soon as the regulators approve (they are being quite reasonable tbh)

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2025

For other markets, including China (for HW3 vehicles) and Europe, the red tape is still in place. Both of these markets have big regulatory hurdles that Tesla needs to overcome. In China’s case, every new update must be validated with the government, which takes additional time. In Europe’s case, we’re still awaiting the green light from UNECE regulators to approve autonomous vehicles on European roads.

Elon provided a much-needed update on FSD and Robotaxi, one that we hadn’t had in a long time. Current users can look forward to what is likely a major capability boost, sourced from Robotaxi in Austin, while those outside of North America now have some additional hope that FSD may arrive before the end of 2025.

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