Musk distracts from struggling car biz with fantastical promise to make 1 million humanoid robots a year

Elon Musk's car company is getting ready to be Skynet. Tesla, facing an 11 percent decline in automotive revenue in Q4 2025, has committed to $20 billion in capex spending this year on manufacturing and compute infrastructure. The goal: build lots of humanoid robots. The cash conflagration includes a plan to shift its Fremont …

[PhilipN]

"tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

Well that covers most of what the human race does every day.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

THe sad thing is most humans do less than that, they literally do nothing.

GO visit any office for example, half the staff could be at home completely disconnected and nobpody would notice and nothing would change.

My local council has a multi story building with hundreds of staff and yet the only people actually doing real work that we can see are the garbos who pick up the garbage, and gardeners. Thats barely 10- 20 people and yet there are over a 100 in the office doing i have no idea.

I saw another video on YT about grape growers in South Australia, who are struggling to sell their grapes for $200 a tonne, thats 20c a kilo, and yet my local Woolies sells grapes for $16 a kg.

Where is all the money going ?

Bums who do nothing.

Unfortunately we have an over supply.

[Rikki Tikki]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

Typical "public servants do nothing" attitude. I have worked in a territory/local government, and I can assure you that most people work hard. Yes, there are some slackers and some (mainly at middle management level) who may not be optimally productive, but these are very much a minority.

There are plenty of jobs that council workers do, I'm sure you would notice of, for example, if the library wasn't there or local footpaths weren't maintained. As to the office staff, just because you don't see it, doesn't mean there is no work. I'm certain the garbos would object quite strongly if the "do nothing" office workers didn't process their pay.

Also, do you still believe anything you see on YT, without confirming from a reliable source?

[Mike VandeVelde]

Re: process their pay

How many people does it take to "process their pay"? RIPE FOR AUTOMATION.

And not just at the government level. Governments issue the "processed" pay to the employees. Then banks get paid to process the paying. Then governments process the income taxes to be collected from the employees. Then banks get paid to process the paying of the income taxes. Then companies process the collection of the sales taxes from the employees spending their pay. Then banks get paid to process the paying of the sales taxes. Then governments process the collection of the sales taxes and decide where to spend the taxes collected. Then the banks get paid to process those payments.

And not just the banking level. In order for the companies to collect any sales taxes they need to pay the marketers to make the employees aware of where they can spend their pay. They need to pay the accountants to process the revenue collection and the tax payments. They need to pay the lawyers to process the contracts. They need to pay through the nose for the "Big Brain" executives to oversee it all. And at every step there are more loops of governments and banks.

Thus corporate palaces and byzantine government office towers abound. I'm sure at least some probably even most of the individuals involved are good at heart and earnest at the tasks they are given, they aren't doing nothing but are they doing anything a Roomba couldn't do? The whole system is right fucked.

That's how the farmer gets $0.20 for a kilo of grapes and the consumer pays $16.00 for a kilo of grapes. Because this grossly distorted Elon Musk producing "capitalist" system is the one true path to "efficiency" and can not be questioned, it is as it is and as it bloody well should be. RIPE FOR AUTOMATION.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: process their pay

Your first paragraph is true, but theres only one problem, all these processes are computerised and not manual. Sure there are teams of programmers and the related team members. However governments and teams will readily admit that while they have a lot of software teams, most of their office workers are not in anyway close to the software side of things.

As i state most people today dont actually do anything of value. THey ATTEND their work places, and they are all waiting for time to pass and go home. They dont actitvely try and help people.

Most people here who have answered to me, are examples of this, they cant actually say what these people or themselves do, instead they insult me, and that tells.

[nobody who matters]

Re: process their pay

"... instead they insult me,"

To be fair to them, I think you insulted them first ;)

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: process their pay

You are another example of the lazy office worker at a computer.

I didnt insult anyone, i gave an observation and my opinion.

You however are too lazy to even quote what i said to share some context.

[nobody who matters]

Re: process their pay

"You are another example of the lazy office worker at a computer."

Wrong again - I am not and never have been, an office worker.

If you think you didn't insult anyone, I suggest re-reading your own original post - you made a sweeping statement basically calling all the staff in your local council offices useless layabouts who do nothing all day. I am not sure how any office worker (especially those in local Government) could take that as anything other than insulting them.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: process their pay

"Most people here who have answered to me, are examples of this, they cant actually say what these people or themselves do"

OK, let me tell you some of the things that I did as a Civil Servant,.

One of the first jobs that I got given was making bits of clothing from a bomber sufficiently presentable to his family for identification which mostly consisted of removing bits of bomber from them.

Examined other messy things that you probably would preferred not to have done.

Examined scenes of crime where I needed an armed police or army escort.

Worked in a building that was targetted by bombers, unsuccessfully when I worked there, successfully later.

Taken a sample from a rifle that was subsequently discovreed to have been booby-trapped. A similarly booby-trapped shotgun had killed two police officers a few weeks earlier.

In conjunction with a pathologist, excavated the remains of a murder victim buried 7 years earlier. That was one of the armed escort jpbs.

Written reports that could help convict or exonerate people accused of crimes.

Given evidence in court on such matters under cross-examination.

Now you tell us what you've done.

[Mike VandeVelde]

Re: Now you tell us what you've done.

Well I haven't done any of that, thank you for your service and I sincerely hope you're generally OK after all that.

I was only painting some very simple broad brush strokes to show some of the massive amounts of bloat that we have in every nook and cranny of our society. I wasn't at all even focusing on IT departments.

I'm not surprised or very concerned about the number of downvotes I got for criticizing our capitalist system. I know full well the ocean of propaganda we all swam in all our lives, pleople older than me even more so, that says at least we're not communist so be thankful for what you've got.

I have worked with civil servants, almost entirely a very pleasant bunch. Automating systems that included the faxing around of water sample quality results. Why did this remain to be done in the 21st century? Why did it need to be contracted out to my private sector employer? Why was it at all difficult for my employer to get those contracts (and be paid in a timely manner) from various regional jurisdictions? Just one simple example, from a couple of decades ago now, but I do not have the feeling that things have changed much at all in any meaningful way.

I have also dealt with many a civil servant as a client in my handful of decades on this planet. I served my time in the trenches at a call center doing tech support for piano sized printers so I have above average sympathy for frontline workers. I fully understand "I understand your issue but the system is set up so that there is nothing I can personally do to solve anything for you." It still really grinds my gears though and I can see why some people sometimes vent their feelings on the people who least deserve it.

My point was basically that for those who wonder why it seems like capitalilsm is collapsing under it's own weight, you just need to look in the nooks and crannies and under the couch cushions of any office tower for the reasons to become plainly apparent. Be that a bank, or a government agency, or a marketing firm, or a lawyer's office, or an accountacy, or etc parasitic organizations who don't actually produce anything of value just take their tupence for keeping an eye on things, and have more than their share of people putting cover sheets on TPS reports all day. If I go buy a bicycle I can clearly see the armies of people who had nothing to do with building it or handing it off to me who have stuck in their fingers in some stupid way. I would just go past the grocery store with their $16.00 grapes and take a trip directly to the farmer and offer them a life changing $0.50 worth of barter for the same grapes instead of the $0.20 they normally get, but there are whole other armies of people in place to stop me from crossing any borders with dangerous goods like that, who also need to be paid and have their own headquarters office towers with lawyers and accountants and etc. I guess this is what getting old is all about, realizing that it's the same as it ever was under every system that's ever been tried for thousands of years and anyone who says they have a way around any of it is 99.99% likely way worse than the status quo. And so it goes until it all gets burnt down and rebuilt all over again.

[Rikki Tikki]

Re: Now you tell us what you've done.

Mike, not downvoting you, but I believe the grapes example CHF quoted was poorly chosen.

Table grapes may reach $A16 a kilo out of season - often imported. Currently, Coles and Woolworths here are selling grapes for $A5.00-5.50 a kilo, depending on the variety. And I don't believe that farmers are only receiving $0.20 a kilo, this wouldn't even cover their labour costs.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: Now you tell us what you've done.

Woolies sold me grapes or $16kg just the other day. Whether its $16 or $5ish the later is still 20x what the farmer is making.

20 DUCKING TIMES.

The farmers are not covering their costs at 20c they need 40c and thats why they are going broke.

This is insane, theres a 20x markup and the farmers who provide the product cant even break even.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: process their pay

I have news for you.

Council office workers are not specialised. Councils do not have bomb fragment or similar investigations.

What makes you think EVERY council has such a unit ? A country like AU has thousands of councils, there is no need for a bomb investigation unit for EACH ONE.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: process their pay

Thank you downvoters, youa re exactly the bludgers i am talking about. You can only downvote and cant take a few moments to write a critique of my statements.

Just like your office worker brethren who cant be bothered to help the public and just hang the phone or ghost .

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: process their pay

"You can only downvote and cant take a few moments to write a critique of my statements."

What?.....and have you downvote us in retaliation!

[nobody who matters]

Re: process their pay

QED!

[AVR]

Re: process their pay

Payroll takes a lot less staff than it did thirty years ago. It has already been largely automated. Companies pay some fees for that, but less than the cost of the staff.

Marketing is hard to call, different people are doing it - often more centralised, but on the other hand retail staff are asked to do some. Accountants are way down in number and cost, automation again. Legal services are generally up in cost. Execs, sure the cost is way up there.

I think you don't know much about this subject.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: process their pay

"That's how the farmer gets $0.20 for a kilo of grapes and the consumer pays $16.00 for a kilo of grapes."

I doubt most of the difference goes in paying those whose jobs involve just coming into the office as you seem to think. I'd guess most of the mark-up is the supermarket's although it will cost money to transport them (probably refrigerated).

However, as to AUTOMATING (your shout) office jobs, most weekend papers have a column dedicated to customers and taxpayers who got screwed by banks, finance companies, travel companies, property companies, government departments etc and cannot get hold of anyone to sort things out until a journalist rings the press office. That's auomation at work.

[MachDiamond]

Re: process their pay

"I'd guess most of the mark-up is the supermarket's"

There's not much markup in the grocery business once everything is taken into consideration. Any of those grapes that wasn't kept nice a cool might have started growing fuzz that makes the whole punt unsalable and the market winds up having to absorb the waste. There's also all of the sorting and packaging that goes into the grapes that the farmer might not be paying for if their harvest goes to a third party or co-op processing facility. If it's been a really good season for grapes, there will be a lot of supply that drives price down. It's a complicated business and highly perishable.

If you want to avoid paying $16/kg for grapes, shop around and buy in bulk if you have the time and know how to preserve them. Fresh grapes are a treat, but treats are often rather expensive. A couple of years ago I was able to buy a large quantity of blackberries and I've still got some jars of jam on the pantry shelf. It was a full day of work, but my cost was under $2/pint. The best part is I know exactly what went into the jars, blackberries and sugar, full stop.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: process their pay

cow: That's how the farmer gets $0.20 for a kilo of grapes and the consumer pays $16.00 for a kilo of grapes."

doctor: I doubt most of the difference goes in paying those whose jobs involve just coming into the office as you seem to think. I'd guess most of the mark-up is the supermarket's although it will cost money to transport them (probably refrigerated).

Cow:

Theres are a few problems. OIL is on the low side, even when compared to 10 years ago, so there are no new oil costs. Wages are stagnant and havent really moved in years. Food is constantly increasing all the time. Grapes are almost double they were just a year or two ago.

So what changed ?

~

doctor: However, as to AUTOMATING (your shout) office jobs, most weekend papers have a column dedicated to customers and taxpayers who got screwed by banks, finance companies, travel companies, property companies, government departments etc and cannot get hold of anyone to sort things out until a journalist rings the press office. That's auomation at work.

cow:

You ddidnt actually answer my question where is the money going ?

Everything is going up - because our society is plagued with unproductive people who add no value and add only cost.

There is no manufcaturing in Australia, there are of course real workers like the blue collar types who fight fires, fix plumbing and all that. But as the years ago by the number of ofice workers goes up.

BUT a lot of Australians have jobs in offices, and this burden is forcing the prices of everything up. More office workers does not make food cheaper. It doesnt make clothes cheaper.

Maybe 30 years ago we had one GAS company and one electricity company both run by the government and prices were cheaper. Today gas and electricity is going up at least 10% each year. What we do have is dozens of companies, with dozens of offices and all that staff. Before it was one HQ and now its dozens. Thats not free, those buildings cost a lot of money, all those managements want bonuses. The cost of coal hasnt changed that much, same for coal.

Pretty obvious wher ethe cost sorry tax on people is coming from. Those bums on seats cost money and they add no value. THey were not neeced 30 years ago and they certainly are not now.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

Rikki: Typical "public servants do nothing" attitude. I have worked in a territory/local government, and I can assure you that most people work hard. Yes, there are some slackers and some (mainly at middle management level) who may not be optimally productive, but these are very much a minority.

cow: Yes the public servants OUTSIDE work hard most of the office workers do NOTHING.

Goto any job board, and randomly pick a 3 advertisements with contact emails. Write them a simple question and whats the bet NONE reply. Repeat the challenge but this time try emailing random government or council body with a random question.

[Dave K]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

Clearly you've never worked with public servants. I have. (here in the UK, I was IT support for a local council some time back), and the vast majority work pretty hard. I'm willing to guess you haven't worked with public servants, have no idea what they do, so you're just going straight in with a baseless "they must do nothing then" approach, which is deeply misguided.

At the place I worked at, there were teams dealing with social housing request/maintenance etc, teams collecting/processing/chasing council tax, teams dealing with planning proposals/disputes, teams managing various infrastructure such as libraries/leisure centres/community centres, the list goes on and on. Just because you don't know what they do doesn't mean they're not doing anything.

As your your comment of e-mailing random government/council bodies with random questions, did it ever occur to you that those people may in fact be busy doing their JOBS and hence may not have the free time to just sit there and reply to every inane query that you send through?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

But they are all "unelected bureaucrats 'init"

/s

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

Judging by what they write, I assume CowHorseFrog gets their "facts", news and opinions from somewhere like the Daily Heil.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

How about you actually back your statements anon, instead of being yet another example of a lazy shit who cant be bothered to write a complete sentence and counter what i say.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

Not easy being civil and wrong is it...

Thanks for proving to be a shit head.

[Rikki Tikki]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

@Dave K

It's a while since I worked in a UK public service job (>40 years), but I was going to post something similar myself, including the sentiment of your last paragraph.

For other comments:

For those who believe payroll, or any other financial function, can be fully automated, try [search engine of choice] "robodebt Australia".

Maybe my initial post was not clearly worded: of course, a lot of the processing is computerised, but it still needs people to manage the process and ensure inputs/outputs are complete, accurate, and timely.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

Dave: As your your comment of e-mailing random government/council bodies with random questions, did it ever occur to you that those people may in fact be busy doing their JOBS and hence may not have the free time to just sit there and reply to every inane query that you send through?

cow:

Do you know how the police/ambos/firies find out people need help ?

From their phone line.

Im simply talking about other orgs, the only difference is those orgs also have public emails or forms.

So you think the fire/ambo/police would be better able to do their work by ignoring 000 or 999 ?

What a fucking idiot.

[Dave K]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

The emergency services are NOT the local council. You're comparing two entirely different bodies and are coming across as a major idiot in the process. Even then, if you phone 999 and ask stupid questions, you will be hung up on and may be reported to police for abuse of an emergency contact number. It's not there for you to phone up and ask random questions, it's there to report emergencies.

Similarly, phone up your council's housing number with a legitimate question about social housing and you'll get help. Ask stupid questions instead and you won't. The number is there for council tenants to get help/assistance, not for stupid random questions. Same goes for e-mail. Contact the council tax team with a stupid question and of course they'll delete the e-mail without replying. It's not what the mailbox is for and it's not what those public servants are being paid to do.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

There are very large teams of council office staff who exist to perform tasks for the benefit of the local rate payers.

How can they help local rate payers if they dont actually interact, learn, listen and help those rate payers ? If you want to help someone theres a good chance you must leave the office. In the end someone has to visit the street, home or other site to see and identify if a problem exists.

dave: Similarly, phone up your council's housing number with a legitimate question about social housing and you'll get help.

cow:

Local councils in Australia do not help with local housing or similar social work. That type of thing belongs to a different department who function at the federal level.

I stated in a previous post local councils do work like picking up trash and taking care of parks and accepting payments for land rates. They off course process building requests for changes and new developments. Thats literally ALL their work.

Why does a local council need a hundred or more office staff to perform that work ? The garbo who picks the rurbbish and the council workers who cut the grass are not assisted by the office workers at all. THose office workers are not mechanically minded, they dont fix those big machines.

THis example of office workers matches what we see on a national level. Almost nothing (ignoring food) we buy is made in Australia, the vast majority comes from overseas. THe same is true of the UK. Most cars are from OS, clothes, electronics, etc.

[Rikki Tikki]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

"local councils do work like picking up trash and taking care of parks and accepting payments for land rates. They off course process building requests for changes and new developments. Thats literally ALL their work.

No, that is not all their work. See here:

https://www.lga.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0036/1666926/The-role-of-local-government-fact-sheet.pdf

(I'm taking a punt you are in SA, it was the state you mentioned).

Oh, and BTW, public housing is largely managed by state housing departments, not federal government.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

"the only people actually doing real work that we can see?"

What do you do that's visible to those outside your place of work?

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

"I saw another video on YT about grape growers in South Australia, who are struggling to sell their grapes for $200 a tonne, thats 20c a kilo, and yet my local Woolies sells grapes for $16 a kg."

SA is a major wine growing region in AU so I might wonder whether these growers are producing wine grapes which given the global drop in wine demand, are a drug in the market ?

Table grapes are different varieties altogether and most on the market now (certainly the seedless black grapes) are patented and grown under license (eg Midnight Beauty^®) which increases costs. I remember when that variety was first introduced growers were paying around AUD300,000-4000,000 each for the license (and plant material.)

Having written that, I concede our grocery duopoly has been ripping off both growers and customers for decades and doubled down from COVID onwards.

[MachDiamond]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

"Having written that, I concede our grocery duopoly has been ripping off both growers and customers for decades and doubled down from COVID onwards."

It's not the grocery duopoly, it's those license fees and a herd of blood sucking lawyers that chase along behind. If your neighbor's farm has cross-pollinated your crops, expect to get a cease and desist letter from Dewey, Cheetum and Howe about a patent violation. Your only hope is to plow everything under as the cheaper option to engaging your own herd of blood sucking lawyers to be the army on your side.

The major grocery chains are no saints but the biggest money grabs are between the farmers and the grocery stores and on the periphery. <cough, Monsato, cough>

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

Mach you just confirmed what i said, with your comment highlighting Monsanto. Farmers produce the goods we eat, and as you guess, large funds are going to Big Farmer filled with suits in a big office who think they deserve it all.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

Australia is a free country - not every grape farmer grows for the wine industry. They are free to sell to whomever they like.

[vtcodger]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

1. Well, yes. Optimus might be well suited to tasks like bomb defusing/disposal. If it screws up, who cares? But I think there are already bots for that.

2. I think the 1,000,000 sales figure might have more to do with the terms and conditions of his contract with Tesla than with rational expectations.

3. I know zip about robotics, but I've long had doubts about the utility of humanoid form factors for automation of most mechanical tasks. Top heavy, unstable, and too few appendages?

[I ain't Spartacus]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I've long had doubts about the utility of humanoid form factors for automation of most mechanical tasks. Top heavy, unstable, and too few appendages?

My plans for the Squidbot 2000 are advancing daily! Soon these puny fleshlings will cower before my unstoppable army of DOOM!

...Also, they'll be very popular in the sex industry...

[Wiretrip]

Re: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Hahaha I sincerely hope they will be taking into account this famous paper on Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency :-)

https://dn720803.ca.archive.org/0/items/pdfy-tG1MuMpwvrML6QD0/228831637-Optimal-Tip-to-Tip-Efficiency.pdf

[Irongut]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

Optimus will not be suitable for bomb disposal because the wireless signals that it likely emits might prematurely set off said bomb.

Bomb disposal requires careful and deliberate design, mitigating factors that Musk will never even consider.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

"Optimus might be well suited to tasks like bomb defusing/disposal. If it screws up, who cares? But I think there are already bots for that."

The one I saw was a remote-controlled trolley with a shotgun mounted on it. The theory is that it blows the detonating mechanism apart without actually triggering it. The reason I saw it was that it was behind the lab where I worked. The suspicious parcel had been placed there to be accessible. Of course, being inside the building I'd have been out of sight of cowhorsefrog and, therefore, by his logic, doing no work.

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

"humanoid form factors … Top heavy, unstable, and too few appendages ?"

Based on existing examples certainly extremely unstable, those whose skulls consist of 75mm of bone definitely top heavy but I suspect many of the ladies would opine "far too many appendages^†."

_{† "Titter ye a little bit more." I was thinking pussy groping hands. "Oh, please yourselves!"}

[MachDiamond]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

"1. Well, yes. Optimus might be well suited to tasks like bomb defusing/disposal. If it screws up, who cares? But I think there are already bots for that."

Yes, much less expensive ones as well. A tracked gizmo is not bettered by a humanoid form.

"2. I think the 1,000,000 sales figure might have more to do with the terms and conditions of his contract with Tesla than with rational expectations."

Elon likes that number. He just hasn't sorted out that 1M/year is one every 3 seconds. With most people having to take out longer and longer loans to buy a car that costs half as much, they aren't going to be buying a plastic pal to fold their smalls for them.

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: "tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring"

"Well that covers most of what the human race does every day."

And that doesn't include the bad sex…

I know the way out, thanks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sinking feeling

Tesla was cooked when it found out the vocal minority that hyped its CyberTruck weren't representative of the average American car buyers. Thereby destroying a huge amount of effort and money. Since Musk came up with this crazy plan he distanced himself from it and Tesla in general. He simply gave up and left the company to its own devices. Now he believes he can pump up the stock price again with promises of hyper-profitability based on household robots (who doesn't dream about them?) or CyberTaxis.

Unless he delivers real soon he'll find Tesla slipping from his fingers.

I hereby predict that Tesla will go bankrupt within five years!

[DS999]

Re: Sinking feeling

I hereby predict that Tesla will go bankrupt within five years

Don't tempt me with a good time!

[BartyFartsLast]

Re: Sinking feeling

Now hang on a minute there, I refuse to believe any effort went in to designing the cyberdreck....

Though I can imagine Elmo sat at the kitchen table with a box of crayons and tongue poking out of his mouth while drawing it

[MachDiamond]

Re: Sinking feeling

"Though I can imagine Elmo sat at the kitchen table with a box of crayons and tongue poking out of his mouth while drawing it"

It was copied from a 1978 issue of Penthouse magazine from a design concept of Curtis Brubaker. Like most things Elon "invents", it's a copy of something else that was a bad idea many years ago. The tongue hanging out is plausible.

[FIA]

Re: Sinking feeling

Unless he delivers real soon he'll find Tesla slipping from his fingers.

You say that... but Tesla has been vastly overvalued for several years now.

The cars that were once revolutionary are years out of date. They made no effort to refresh their line up despite being a 'car company'.

Yet the investors keep the price up, and seem happy to pay their dear leader billions in compensation.

We're about a year away from Musk appearing naked I reckon.

[HausWolf]

Re: Sinking feeling

We're about a year away from Musk appearing naked I reckon.

jfc, it's still early here in the US.

I remember that picture of him on someones yacht from a couple of years ago.

You damn near ruined my breakfast.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sinking feeling

This has led me to the conclusion that the whole American economy is one big Ponzi scheme.

Valuations of companies like NVIDIA, OpenAI, Tesla, Microsoft and Anthropic are purely based on adding "A.I." to every press release sent out into the world.

But one day soon, the whole house of cards will come tumbling down!

[Irongut]

Re: Sinking feeling

> We're about a year away from Musk appearing naked I reckon.

Or 30 seconds if you're willing to use Grok.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Sinking feeling

"You say that... but Tesla has been vastly overvalued for several years now."

Yes, but it was netting some profit even if it was nowhere near the grand visions that Elon had been promising. The net profit for 2025 was $5.86bn which is down from the $8.42bn in 2024 which is down from the $10.88 in 2023 which is down from the $14.12 in 2022 which was their first good year. To completely shift to identifying as "not a car company" and planning to spend $20bn in R&D, I'm not confident that they'll make it much further along from the end of 2026. xAI burns massive amounts of money every month and SpaceX isn't thought to be making anything due to a huge cash burn to set up facilities to launch a rocket they can't get to work properly that also isn't good for much unless they spend billions more on bespoke variants. Maybe that why Elon is registering to launch a million satellites when they are still working on the 48,000 Starlink constellation. With a life of 5 years, it's not hard to work out the math of what it will take to keep the constellation filled out once they've reached the design. A question is how easy/hard it will be to fill in the blanks. It doesn't seem likely that the holes will be large enough to use a Starship full of replacements.

[simonlb]

Re: Sinking feeling

Well he said the usual Musk Bullshit Bingo master phrase, "I'm confident that...", which means it's never going to happen. Why the hell do people still, after fifteen or so years of this, hang on to his every word as if he's some sort of genius or messiah? He isn't, and that has been proven time and time again when numerous of his prophecies have never materialised and most never will.

A million Optimus robots a year? That will never happen. Perhaps, at some point, if they keep plugging away at it for a while, they may assemble a million of them, but every year? Not gonna happen. And stopping making two models of car this next year, but replacing them with what? The 'new' roadster touted as 'in production' eight years ago that they took $2.5B dollars in deposits for but that doesn't exist? The one which has performance and range which breaks both the laws of physics and all existing battery technology? Jesus, give me a break.

The only thing I can see are class action lawsuits, and these are well overdue.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Sinking feeling

"they took $2.5B dollars in deposits for but that doesn't exist?"

It was $250mn in full price deposits plus a bunch of refundable "reservations". Since then, they had to refund a bunch of avoid becoming entangled in loads of lawsuits. Probably arbitrations since I expect the contracts stipulated arbitration and no class-action suits.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sinking feeling

He did some good stuff with SpaceX, there's no denying. But he's growing increasingly erratic and coming up with more and more implausible explanations to explain his behavior.

How long before he folds the floundering Tesla into his SpaceX holding and rationalizing it by claiming "I'm confident that we'll have electric cars flying through space"?

[b0llchit]

Classic tactical diversion

It is the classic tactical diversion where you know a huge pile of shit has hit the even larger ventilator blowing both the scent and huge brows soft round bricks of faeces in everybody's face and then you say:

Look over there! See my magical tricks that make all your dreams come true!

As they say, it is a classic.

[hamakei]

Tesla tends to do badly when Musk gives it his attention. The best thing for the company would be for him to stay far away but leave his money there.

[BartyFartsLast]

Except we know he can't stay away if he wants his fantastical pay check.

[MachDiamond]

"The best thing for the company would be for him to stay far away but leave his money there."

Elon has already cashed out far more than he ever put in. Both in terms of cash money and useful work.

[Andy 73]

Pertect..

"In my opinion, believing that this will happen any time within decades is pure fantasy thinking." - Perfect for Musk, who has built businesses entirely on fantasy thinking.

[bazza]

Not sure if the article / headline is an accurate report of what's been proposed. However, as a shareholder I'd be more interested if he'd promised to sell 1 million robots. Making 1 million robots doesn't count!

[Doctor Syntax]

I remember once seeing pictures of unsold cars parked in neat rows on an old airfield somewhere. I then imagined that applied to unsold humanoid robots; it looked like the terracotta army.

[ComputerSays_noAbsolutelyNo]

Future archaeologists will be puzzled by the Teslabotta Army

[Bebu sa Ware]

Future archaeologists will be puzzled by the Teslabotta Army

I follow the reference as far as the baskets of rotting fish but ever since his infamous pedo—guy slur, Musk has been so completely on the nose that an ocean of garum could not conceal his stench.

[MachDiamond]

"I remember once seeing pictures of unsold cars parked in neat rows on an old airfield somewhere."

I remembered seeing row upon row of unsold Teslas from my daily train way back. There used to be a web site dedicated to photos people sent in of those storage lots.

[BartyFartsLast]

Watch for the bump in prices, grit your teeth for as long as you can and hope you're in the first wave of investors dumping those shares

[zimzam]

If he keeps promising things and then not doing them, why is it still news when he does it again?

[Flocke Kroes]

Re: why is it still news

Musk's specific purpose at Tesla is to make daft promises that get repeated by news sites. The tactic still bumps the share price which is far more important to shareholders than manufacturing or selling/renting things.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: why is it still news

If a share price is maintained by hot air then the shareholders need to understand the difference between importance and value. When the hot air supply fails they'll find the prices in free fall until they correspond with the actual value.

[David Hicklin]

Re: why is it still news

> The tactic still bumps the share price which is far more important to shareholders than manufacturing or selling/renting things.

But until they actually go and sell some of these shares they are still imaginary funny money, and when they do start to sell in any quantity the price is going to tank.

I wonder who is going to be the first to blink.

[Dan 55]

He'll get a few years pause between manufacturing Swasticars and manufacturing non-existent robots. He can say that retooling the plant is very long and complicated process that would be faster if only he had the robots which he hasn't manufactured yet... Meanwhile the plant is silently mothballed like the Hype(r)loop link to SpaceX was.

[MachDiamond]

"He can say that retooling the plant is very long and complicated process that would be faster if only he had the robots which he hasn't manufactured yet."

And this would be from somebody that bragged they knew more about manufacturing than anybody else on the planet. He still thinks it's a good idea to have the manufacturing in a region of the country with an extremely high cost of living. The faster he can get robots making robots, the less time he'll be hemorrhaging money. The Fremont plant may have been a good idea initially since it was already there, but it's long since past time Tesla was out of there.

[jake]

Realistically ...

... a general purpose humanoid robot won't be what it says on the tin until it can make my bed, wax the car and fly it around to the front, change the sprog's nappies, dig the spuds, pick the tomatoes and make & pressure can tomato sauce, mow the lawns (and take care of the equipment required), do the dishes and the laundry (including properly putting away both), fetch me the snail-mail and a beer, and the sprog's nappies will need changing again.

In short, Musk is at least as full of shit as the sprog's nappies. As usual.

Come to think of it, I think I'll wait until the sprog is old enough to be trained to do the above. It'll be easier, faster, much, much cheaper and a lot more fool-proof.

_{Actually, the sprog is in her forties ... and doing a good job of training her own sprog to do all the above. Except flying the car, of course.}

[Like a badger]

Re: Realistically ...

Same here, but you've got to admire the chutzpah of using a "plucked out of Elon's arse" $20k price estimate - the chances of Tesla churning out anything at that price are nil. Even so, if after housing, food, energy, transport, holidays/second homes, clothing, healthcare & education, etc a household has $20k entirely disposable income, they're cash rich and time poor enough to already employ reliable and probably quite likeable cleaners, nannies, gardeners. Why would that demographic want a creepy tin man wandering round the house? If it's as mechanically noisy as Robocop then that's scary, if it's silent like a T-1000 then that's even scarier (especially at night). They'd need to be comfortable with Tesla streaming the video of everything in the house (good for exhibitionists, not so good for others?). Perhaps the target market is people who would want to flash the robot because it won't walk out of the job?

Or maybe Elmo is heading further still in that direction, and these robots aren't intended for household chores, they're intended for, errmmm.....pleasure.

"Alright, alright you can buy that bloody robot with the Gentleman's Companion option dear, but only if it comes with the Lady Of Leisure fun pack"

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: Realistically ...

Maybe there's a market for robots as nannies, cleaners and tennis coaches? Sure, they're not likeable, unlike the human ones. But then the human ones can also be just a bit too likeable sometimes. More specifically when they stray into the territory of loveable...

On the other hand, someone will make a humanoid robot with a mode for that as well. And if not, well people are imaginative, and sometimes downright kinky. They'll find some way to have sex with them, however they're designed.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Realistically ...

but only if it comes with the Lady Of Leisure fun pack

lf that fails to deliver, I'm sure the creator will come around to provide personal service. That is if, the Lady is of childbearing age

[Irongut]

Re: Realistically ...

It's for rich people who hate human beings and suspect their servants are stealing from them. First customer = Zuck.

And those who despise their servants for being illegal immigrants. So the entire Republican & Tory parties.

[Bebu sa Ware]

Re: Realistically ...

"robot with the Gentleman's Companion option"

While I don't have much confidence in Musk pulling this off, I would be more concerned that if he shipped a robot so optioned, "she" might well pull it off.

With Sods' Law and unimaginative engineers, you can be certain the lithium battery packs which can become more than a little heated, will be placed around the "interesting" ladybits in which case the unfortunate "Gentlemen" will be presenting to an emergency burns unit with an interesting story.

[Like a badger]

Re: Realistically ...

you can be certain the lithium battery packs which can become more than a little heated.....

Musk will be late for that particular party:

https://www.gov.uk/product-safety-alerts-reports-recalls/product-recall-so-devine-vibrating-pearl-love-egg-j1202-01-2310-0186

Note: The link is safe, it's a government website reporting a product safety concern, but perhaps think carefully before clicking on it from a work computer.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Realistically ...

"... a general purpose humanoid robot won't be what it says on the tin until it can"

Are you willing to pay $100k for a device to do all of that? Let's not forget the required subscription and changing nappies or anything else really useful will be a premium charge. Watering the house plants up to 3x per week might be included in the base level package. As to digging potatoes, you will need to remember to buy the optional over-suit pack since getting the bot wet/dirty will cause it to rust and if the moisture sensor turns pink, the warranty is void.

[jake]

Re: Realistically ...

"Are you willing to pay $100k for a device to do all of that?"

Hell no. That's why the Universe invented children.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Realistically ...

"Hell no. That's why the Universe invented children."

Yeah, that's how I was raised as well. Gramps even taught me how to engineer a bridge so it didn't hurt me that much to be the local labor around the property.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Realistically ...

For the life of me I can't understand why investors aren't dumping the stock right then and there. Everyone understands that to make a general purpose USEFUL household robot you need A.I. on par with human beings. There's no way Musk can deliver that in any reasonable time span.

He did some great things in rocket engineering, but I've always believed he totally underestimated the complexity of building a self-driving vehicle. Or maybe he's just a charlatan.

[CountCadaver]

less skynet and more Faro Automated Solutions

Yep Elon grows ever more like Ted Faro every single day....

https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Ted_Faro

[shodanbo]

In my unexpert option a humanoid robot will be ready for the any real world human task when ....

... it can sneak up on me and kick me in the nards ...

... then spin me around and give me a wedgie ...

... and then take the the video it recorded on its smartphone and post it to a social media site as evidence.

[Wellyboot]

I'd buy that, but I'm not going into print as to where I'd let it loose....

[sedregj]

One of those Boston Dynamics dogs could probably do that provided you don't struggle too much and fall over when asked.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Do those Boston Robotics dogs exhibit the tendency of some dogs to mount the legs of passing people?

[the spectacularly refined chap]

Sounds like the lyrics to a Weird Al song.

Yes, that's AL, not AI.

[Anonymous Coward]

Where does he find all this energy?

Wow, that repurposed venture will be a great extension of his XXX-AI outfit x³AI, tangible with the solidity of turgor, a throbbing investment vehicle to piggyback on for wheelbarrow rides through slush fund returns and pommel horse trampolines! Kinda like that Toyota-Boston-Dynamics partnership, but with gettin' some on top as an extra cherry ...

Yes, this here field of nudified mechaHitler sex robot dolls of adjustable age could right tap decades of frustrated would-be buyers for the fireworks of a ROI climax. Swell business to penetrate for a spermatozoon firehoseterpreneur with advanced degrees in ASD, ADHD, PTSD, and whathaveyounot-D, imho (iiuc)! _</sarc?>

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

Re: Where does he find all this energy?

aManfrommars1, is that you?

[jake]

Re: Where does he find all this energy?

Nah. amfM sticks to a topic, and once you get past the headache-inducing syntax, it usually makes a sort of sense even if you don't necessarily agree with it. He also never (as far as I know!) posts AC.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Where does he find all this energy?

Ketam.. no, wait, is that a trick question?

[ecofeco]

Cool

And will they also buy his cars?

Asking for a friend-bot.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Cool

Is that the friend you left in the hallway?

Icon - Getting my long coat, grey hat etc......

[Anonymous Coward]

Employment exchange queues

Will they have separate queues for out of work humans and last years model robots?

Next!

[BartyFartsLast]

Smoke and mirrors

Always with the bullshit when there's a hint of trouble, maybe this time is the one it all collapsed around his ears.

[Anonymous Coward]

When is Elmo going to start selling his sperm

instead of just trying to give it away?

[BartyFartsLast]

Re: When is Elmo going to start selling his sperm

He's probably worked out a way to claim it as charitable donations and make it tax deductible, after all it does give the recipient a lifetime income if they carry to term

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: When is Elmo going to start selling his sperm

Does that make them Tesla's girls?

[Doctor Evil]

Re: When is Elmo going to start selling his sperm

"Does that make them Tesla's girls?"

Oh My Dear, that IS a dated reference! I still spin it up once in a while when I'm feeling particularly nostalgic.

[that one in the corner]

Re: When is Elmo going to start selling his sperm

No

No, no, no

No, no, no

[Anonymous Coward]

Worth avoiding..

"This Optimus really will be a general-purpose robot that can learn by observing human behavior."

Let's hope it doesn't have to learn from Musk's behaviour then..

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Worth avoiding..

we may see these robots go around raising their right arm when they interact with one another and humans. Double arm raising if it's Musk

[BartyFartsLast]

I for one...

Will they come from the factory with paint jobs by Hugo Boss or is that something they'll choose for themselves after being integrated with Grok?

[Forget It]

Elon's got no clothes on...

Re Nudo.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Elon's got no clothes on...

You'd think the Disencharment would have kicked in fairly quickly after that sight.

[Fursty Ferret]

Toothless Tesla board

I can't understand why the Tesla board keeps him as CEO and keeps approving his ridiculous pay package when he's single-handedly delivered unimaginable damage to the brand. It's interesting that the only time he seemed interested in doing anything at the company was when they were debating his pay, and once approved he went back to fiddling with domestic and international politics.

I'd never buy a Tesla vehicle while he's there. He claims to be an engineering genius but if his engineering knowledge is anything like his political knowledge, it's surprising that anything at SpaceX got off the ground. His obsession with Starship is rapidly proving to be a stunningly expensive dead end for SpaceX (almost certainly why they're going public this year). His constant lies about Tesla's FSD / Robotaxi / robot / battery / charging capability is wearing thin (well, not as thin as it would be for someone who paid for it a decade ago).

[Like a badger]

Re: Toothless Tesla board

I can't understand why the Tesla board keeps him as CEO

Very simple, in my view. The board (and senior officers) are all lickspittles chosen by Musk, and as long as the plates keep spinning they're coining it in:

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/tesla-board-made-3-billion-via-stock-awards-that-dwarfed-tech-peers-2025-12-15/

Moreover, imagine they did have the nads to throw him out on his ear, what then? They've not addressed any of the company or its boss's failings so far, why would they magically produce talent in either automotive or robotics? Further problems are that Tesla is more of a brand name for Musk himself, and having shat upon his own flag, new bosses would need to re-brand the company which would be very costly and take time to stick. There's no new model pipeline, so they've got the dullard 3, the low-selling WankaTruck, the why-does-this-car-exist Y, and the incoming roadster. There's no entry level model, no high end model, build quality has never really been sorted, reports from Europe show huge numbers of 4 year old Teslas failing their mandatory road safety inspections. Other than Musk and his fanbois everybody has seen these problems developing. The spiteful mouthy druggie will remain a major shareholder and make things as difficult as he can, and continually badmouth the new bosses through his social media platform. And finally, all organisations become shadows of their leader: management within Tesla will mostly be the same brownshirts as their current leader, that's not good for turning a business a round.

It's interesting to see how it came to this. Look at videos of the heroes welcome, the propaganda, the adulation when Musk speaks to shareholders. Outside, we all know it's a cult. Inside they BELIEVE in Musk's god-ness, including Musk himself. Like his hero, Musk is destined to command his phantom business legions from a beleaguered bunker as the forces of inevitability close in. Yet even when Tesla is a financial ruin, and everybody says "knew it all along", Musk will still be a billionaire, people will still fall for his next round of endless promises.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Toothless Tesla board

"It's interesting to see how it came to this. Look at videos of the heroes welcome, the propaganda, the adulation when Musk speaks to shareholders. "

Contrast that with the monologues he's done in front of SpaceX employees where there's dead silence. I'm sure they were voluntold to be there. Elon even pauses at points where he expects there will be cheers. The problem is they know everything he's saying is complete and utter tripe. I'm sure they are also concerned about timelines being thrown out and how many hours of mandatory overtime that's going to mean and if their Significant Other will tolerate fewer hours at home. I've been at jobs where I just gave up caring and held on to keep the paychecks coming in until I could find something better. One job I applied for knowing I'd only be there for a limited time before they moved to a new facility in the middle of nowhere, TX. The walls started falling in at that company and they didn't fill the position. I still talk with the engineering manager from time to time. He really wanted me onboard and the work would have be very interesting.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Toothless Tesla board

Not toothless, but vested interest in giving in to Musk's demands due remuneration and other perks.

See post above from @Like a badger

[Irongut]

Re: Toothless Tesla board

You expect his even more worthless brother to get rid of Musk? What would happen to his cushy Tesla board member job then?

[MachDiamond]

Re: Toothless Tesla board

"it's surprising that anything at SpaceX got off the ground."

That's down to having somebody like Tom Mueller (started his own company) and professional managers such as Jim Maser (left ages ago). That got the Falcon 9 going. Gwynne has kept the F9 side of things going but doesn't seem to be any more than a cheerleader for anything else. Starship is an Elon project.

One of the big reasons for companies going public is for the existing investors to cash out. SpaceX has been holding fund raising rounds several times per year and they might be having issues attracting more private investor money at this point with many VC's shifting to the AI fantasy that's more expensive to do than landing people on the moon. Going public will mean killing off any Mars ambition. There's no ROI on that sort of project and publicly traded companies are held to much tighter controls when it comes to protecting shareholders.

A positive reason for going public is the company is at a point where they need significant investment to scale up quickly before patents and market opportunities expire. VC money is also quite expensive so some cashing out is not a bad idea.

[_wojtek]

pivot

pivot, pivot, pivot...

would be lovely if AI bubble bursting combined with dumb musk decisions (cybertruck was his own idea) resulted in him loosing a lot of inflated "wealth"

[may_i]

Familiar game plan

All this "when stocks are going down, prop them up with bullshit" seems very familiar.

Who else do we know, who was previously Elon's best buddy, who uses this kind of distraction technique to divert attention from undelivered promises?

[frankvw]

To what end?

Knowing Musk, this, probably...

[John Miles]

I think Mr Musk needs to be careful - I've seen what happens with humanoid robots and bad men - see Chappie's Revenge Scene

[PHXWaymo]

Elon thinks his robots can walk dogs and babysit. Dogs are wolves that have evolved over 10,000 years to recognize humans as alpha pack leaders. Dogs will recognize Musks robots as a pile of wires and computer chips, in other words, nothing. The dog will be out of control, and when he sees an obnoxious 9 year old he hates, bite. Then animal control shows up at your door, followed by a process server from a trial lawyer.

When your 2 year old wanders into the pool, what is the robot to do? Jump in? You could have hired your neighbors 14 year old daughter for 25 bucks, but now you're headed to jail for child neglect. Only a fool would believe Elon about his robots.

[Irongut]

I don't think suggesting hiring 14 year olds to Musk is a good idea if his "AI" is anything to go by.

[heyrick]

Haven't there been a load of movies...where this doesn't end well?

See title.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Haven't there been a load of movies...where this doesn't end well?

& songs

On the eighth day, machine just got upset

A problem Elon had never seen as yet

[smudge]

Optimus, as described by Tesla...

... is "A general purpose, bi-pedal, humanoid robot capable of performing tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring."

The ideal audience for Donald Trump, then.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Optimus, as described by Tesla...

Or for watching Melania.

[DoctorPaul]

The writing may be on the wall for SpaceX

Just seen a report in the Grauniad concerning the possible merging of Tesla and SpaceX.

[Ian Johnston]

The current version of their "robot" operates under remote control. It's not quite as good as Honda's Asimo was fifteen years ago. A million per year? Yeah, right.

[spold]

Sounds familiar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_the_Paranoid_Android

[JamesTGrant]

Well, he’s obviously lying. It’s strange that he is seemingly permitted to mislead investors. His claims are bogus for at least the following reasons:

His robots will not learn from observation - they lack the hardware, compute, uplink bandwidth and software to do that. The ability to derive meaning through sequences of visual input is not there yet - by a long way, there is a big difference between ‘tell me what happens in this video sequence’ and interpretation of an environment and making appropriate real-time actions which modify said environment.

Humanoid robots are notoriously difficult to keep upright, even in flat plane environments.

The cost is impossible over the next few years. For reference, the parts cost of a lidr / optical sensory device with sufficient lightweight processing power is pretty high (see Apple Vision Pro - that’s ’just’ a headset and the parts cost is high). And you have a fully articulated robot with servos, motors, pneumatics, sensory sensors, batteries, onboard compute on top of that.

Not quite as ridiculous as his manned mission to Mars projections (which are so ridiculous that I think he uses it to gauge how moronic his audience is).

How’s his fully self driving car going? That’s following a fairly well defined set of rules and still doesn’t work reliably. Navigating and manipulating the ‘real world’ is very complex. They are nowhere near it, let alone a million robots in a year.

I’m sure they’ll deliver something, but it won’t be, or do, what he’s hyping. He is deliberately lying.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don’t forget folks

There’s at least 77 million Americans who are more than happy to lap up bullshit of almost any kind.

[Excused Boots]

Re: Don’t forget folks

There’s at least 77 million Americans who are more than happy to lap up bullshit of almost any kind.

But on the other hand, it does suggest that there are roughly 250 million Americans who aren’t.

So hope yet...

[Bebu sa Ware]

I suspect that the Teslabot LLM ...

has not encoded the fact that a human (including Space Karen) is not a suitable substitute for the kitchen knife block (well, not a fact more a preference.)

Or that toddlers aren't a substitute for fresh pet food.

[MachDiamond]

Re: I suspect that the Teslabot LLM ...

"Or that toddlers aren't a substitute for fresh pet food."

And fresh pet food is not a suitable substitute for feeding to toddlers. Or household cleaners for that matter.

[MachDiamond]

3 per second

I expect Elon knows far less about manufacturing than he thinks. He's talks a lot and counts on others in the company to make it happen, but he fails to notice that it doesn't happen. over and over. Elon fails to spot things that are working well and extending those things such as the Tesla Supercharger network that becomes more and more outdated each day while companies such as Ionna are on a mad dash to bang in as many "Rechargeries" as they can, outfitting with the latest tech, in good locations and able to service all comers. (400v charging vs. 800v cars now taking over).

Humanoid robots are even more limited than humans. What's being missed by the sound-bite MSM is that even Elon has stated the first Optimus models for sale will be in the realm of $100k, not $20k-$30k, the aspirational price. The first models will also likely be replaced very quickly with a couple of more seriously upgraded versions in short order as the biggest deficiencies are found. Will they just brick customer units "for safety" and leave them with zilch as they've done with the Powerwall v2? Now, if they build a million, and I don't expect they will be able to, and have to recall them to be repaired, can they survive the cost of that? It will be important to get a suitable number of them out in the wild doing tasks that "regular" people will expect of them for at least a year. Will senior executives and board members of Tesla be willing test subjects? Whose child is going first for a robotic nappy change? No pulling punches either. These guinea pigs will have to agree to the full suite of snooping and reporting that will be standard in retail models.

[Winkypop]

Tesla Bipedal Systems

Or Tesla BS for short.

[CowHorseFrog]

Almost sounds like Tesla did a Jaguar, and Musk shoudl ask do Tesla still make cars ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Distraction anyone?

So the USP for Tesla isn't working any more? All the other manufacturers have caught up and are making usable Evs (your personal experience may vary) cheaper then you and aren't captained by a chainsaw weilding, ketamine addicted, narcissistic, fascist supporter.

What to do? Ah pivot to an unproven futuristic media friendly robot company? Doesn't need to work only needs to attract the attention of investors who seem to be magpies attracted to every shiny thing even if it was a tinfoil coated turd.

But fair play, when you have a robot that can make the beds, empty and fill the dishwasher, take out the trash and clean the bogs then I might be interested.

But I'm guessing I'll be a long time waiting on a bot with those skills

[Anonymous Coward]

Ideal Replacements for Dim Dem Crims!

I look forward to my new cyber friends - I have grown tired of woke jokes and asylum kids everywhere all with the IQ's of forty dead ferrets! Enough of the stupid already!