With much hype and fanfare, Tesla presented its new robotaxi at its Cybercap event. Among other things, several Optimus robots strolled through the audience. But they were apparently controlled remotely. So did Tesla cheat?
When Elon Musk presented the Tesla robot “Optimus” in May 2021, he received a lot of ridicule. At that time he brought the first example with him, but it quickly turned out that it was just a person in a costume.
Things looked better in September 2022: During a presentation at the Tesla office in Palo Alto (California), a prototype took its first shaky steps and waved to the audience.
Tesla robots were controlled remotely by humans
However, at its Cybercap event on October 10, 2024, Tesla aroused enthusiasm among many visitors with its robot. Because numerous Optimus were running around in the audience, serving drinks or joking with guests.
There are lots of them circulating online Videos of that. But appearances are deceiving. One of the guests commented on his uploaded video as follows:
Last night I played charades with the Tesla robot Optimus. This is either the best robotics and LLM demo the world has ever seen, or it's ONLY remotely controlled by a human. No in-between.
He was right about the latter. It is now confirmed that Tesla had its Optimus robots remotely controlled by humans at the Cybercap event. There are numerous references to this.
Disagreements with Optimus
In a video, one of the Optimus robots replied when asked: “Today I am being supported by a human.” Admittedly, it was clear to many people both on site and when watching the videos that the robots received human support.
Because every Optimus had their own voice. The reactions to human interactions also seem unnaturally quick. It also seems as if synchronized gestures were rehearsed. It is also confirmed that Tesla has developed haptic suits for humans so that they can control an Optimus. There is also that Videos.
Individual robots or people have let it slip that the Optimus was remotely controlled at the Tesla event. Accusing the company of fraud would therefore be going too far. However, the electric car manufacturer has made no attempt to make this fact clear.
Company boss Elon Musk was full-hearted: “This will be the most successful product in history.” However, it is impossible to say how the development of Tesla's robot is really going. What is clear, however, is that the company is under pressure to act.
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Source: https://www.basicthinking.de/blog/2024/10/14/alles-nur-schwindel-optimus-roboter-von-tesla-wurden-ferngesteuert/
