Tesla Optimus robotic takes a suspicious tumble in new demo

A brand new video surfacing from a Tesla demonstration in Miami this weekend reveals the Optimus humanoid robotic taking a nasty fall. Nevertheless it’s not the autumn itself that’s elevating eyebrows, it’s the precise hand actions the robotic made on its manner down, which strongly counsel it was mimicking a distant operator frantically eradicating a VR headset.

Humanoid robots are all of the hype proper now. Billions in investments are pouring in, and Elon Musk claims it will likely be a trillion-dollar product for Tesla, justifying its insane valuation.

The thought has been that with the appearance of AI, robots in human type may use the brand new generalized synthetic intelligence to exchange people in an more and more bigger variety of duties.

Nonetheless, there are nonetheless many severe issues in regards to the effort, each on the moral and technological ranges.

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Technologically, most humanoid robotic demonstrations have relied on distant management by human operators – pointing to a remaining hole between the software program and {hardware}.

We mentioned how the robots on the “We, Robotic” occasion have been closely teleoperatedregardless of Tesla not explicitly disclosing that truth to the general public.

That was greater than a yr in the past, and regardless of claims that Tesla has made “AI demos” of Optimus since, it seems the corporate nonetheless depends on teleoperation to regulate them throughout demonstrations.

The Tesla Optimus Miami Incident

This weekend, Tesla held an occasion known as ‘Autonomy Visualized’ at its retailer in Miami. The purpose was to showcase Tesla’s “Autopilot know-how and Optimus.”

Nonetheless, there was nothing “autonomous” at Tesla’s “autonomy” occasion.

Many Tesla followers have been seen posting movies of a Tesla Optimus robotic handing out bottles of water on the occasion. It was additionally seen posing for photos and dancing.

On Reddit, somebody posted a distinct video of the demonstration:

As you may see, Tesla Optimus moved its arms too rapidly, inflicting some water bottles to drop to the bottom. It then loses its stability and begins to fall backward.

However essentially the most attention-grabbing half is that simply earlier than falling backward, each of its arms instantly shoot as much as its “face” in a definite greedy movement, as if pulling an object off its head.

The robotic, in fact, isn’t sporting something on its head.

The movement is immediately recognizable to anybody who has used VR or watched teleoperation setups. It seems the human operator, doubtless situated backstage or in a distant facility, eliminated their headset in the course of working the robotic for unknown causes.

Optimus faithfully replicated the movement of eradicating a non-existent headset because it crashed to the ground.

Right here’s a take a look at how Tesla educated Pptimus with VR headsets in its lab:

Electrek’s Take

That is embarrassing, however not simply because the robotic fell. Robots fall; that’s a part of the R&D course of. Boston Dynamics blooper reels are legendary, they usually by no means actually eroded the corporate’s credibility.

The issue right here is the “Wizard of Oz” second.

The precise movement of eradicating the “phantom headset” destroys the phantasm of autonomy Tesla tries so laborious to curate.

Even not too long ago, Musk fought again in opposition to the notion that Tesla depends on teleoperation for its Optimus demonstration. He specified {that a} new demo of Optimus doing kung-fu was “AI, not tele-operated”:

Musk stated once more throughout Tesla’s final earnings name in October:

“Optimus was on the Tron premiere doing kung fu, simply up within the open, with Jared Leto. No one was controlling it. It was simply doing kung fu with Jared Leto on the Tron Premier. You may see the movies on-line. The humorous factor is, lots of people walked previous it considering it was only a particular person.”

Musk retains telling shareholders that Optimus would be the greatest product in historical past and that hundreds of thousands of items can be working in factories quickly. But when they’re nonetheless counting on 1:1 teleoperation handy out water bottles proper now, it appears like we’re nonetheless far-off from a helpful generalized Optimus robotic.

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