CheckMag | Tesla's Optimus isn't Prime yet and that's okay

Remember Honda's ASIMO? The Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility was, at the time, the first fully functional bi-pedal robot designed to mimic human-like interaction.

The robot could walk on two legs, climb ramps, dance, learn sign languages, and recognize people's faces using sensors and AI. It seemed like the dawn of consumer robotics was finally upon us, but in 2018, Honda cancelled the project. The company figured that a general-purpose robot would be less efficient than machines designed for one specific task.

Fast forward to 2021, and we have Elon Musk showcasing a man dancing in a robot suit with lofty promises that a fully functional prototype would come the following year designed to handle "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring". It was a big announcement overshadowed by a poor publicity stunt that only seemed to undermine the value of the actual story - Tesla was building a commercially viable general-purpose robot that could be a jack of all trades if the endeavor was to succeed.

Some time later, robots would make a second appearance on the show floor, this time at Tesla's Cybercab event. "The Optimus will walk amongst you", said Elon Musk, promising the robots would eventually be able to "do anything", including walking your dog or babysitting your kids. Moral questions aside, the Optimus robot made an impressive showing. It walked, danced, mingled with observers and even served them drinks. And then one day, illusions came crashing down.

Recent reports from The Verge and Bloomberg confirm what many suspected - that those very impressive robots had relied heavily on humans overseeing their interactions with the attendees. It was the man in the robot suit all over again, casting a long shadow of doubt over the real story - the progress that the team has managed to achieve in just three years. Fluency in human-like locomotion is nothing to scoff at but instead of making it the centerpiece of the show, Tesla opted for its usual song-and-dance routine of making grand promises, this time involving "a future where there is no poverty".

The voice of reason tells us that Tesla just shouldn't be coming up with grand visions of the future while constantly hitting pretty large potholes at present. Yet its failures do not make it a bad company. The only change that really should come sooner rather than later is this - Tesla should start being more honest and more realistic about what it can do, and what it can't.