Elon Musk laid out why it's so hard to make Optimus a reality
Elon Musk has acknowledged that manufacturing the Optimus humanoid robot at scale will be the most difficult challenge in Tesla's history. He emphasized the complexity of designing dexterous, safe robots and the need to build an entirely new supply chain from scratch.
Why it matters
Musk's comments serve to manage investor expectations regarding the timeline and feasibility of Tesla's pivot toward robotics and AI-driven hardware.
A prototype of Tesla's Optimus robot. CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images Elon Musk detailed just how tough it will be to make Optimus a reality during Tesla's earnings call. He said it will be the hardest product to manufacture at scale in Tesla's history. Musk, known for setting overly ambitious timelines, said he wanted to "calibrate people correctly." Elon Musk is discovering just how difficult it is to build a robot that can walk, talk, and think like a human. The Tesla CEO said during the automaker's second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday that building Optimus , a humanoid robot, is a "very complex problem to solve," and "no one's ever achieved this." While Musk said he believes Optimus will be the " biggest product ever ," he flagged "many challenges" in designing it to be dexterous, reliable, durable, and safe.
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