Tesla CEO Elon Musk has unveiled a humanoid robot called Optimus that could one day carry out all our menial tasks and even become our friends and for less than the price of car at about $30,000.
Optimus was the centre of attention when the electric car manufacturer held its annual AI Day.
Musk was quick to manage expectations ahead of the appearance of Optimus which waved to the audience and walked to the front of the stage unassisted.
The robot is powered by the same system that runs Tesla’s autopilot hardware in its electric cars and was shown carrying boxes, lifting heavy objects and picking up a watering can and watering a plant.
The robot will weigh 73kg and includes a 2.3kWh battery is located on its chest.
But Musk emphasised Tesla was at the beginning of the journey with Optimus.
Eventually it will be able walk and run and be used in homes to cook, clean, mow the lawn, care for the elderly and become a companion.
Part of the testing of the Optimus robots will be putting them to work in Tesla’s car factories.
Musk said the goal with Optimus was to make it a mass-produced “extremely capable robot” at a lower cost of about $US20,000 (about $AU30,000) using Tesla’s technology.
The Tesla CEO said he was hoping to attract some engineering talent to the company to speed up development for Optimus.
