Tesla Optimus

Tesla is now building several hundred Optimus humanoid robots per week at Fremont, roughly 10 times its Q2 output, according to a new report. But the robots coming off the line still can’t handle generalized tasks – limiting their usefulness.

The report also describes fragile hands, misaligned parts on the assembly line, and suppliers that can’t hold quality at volume. Those are the two problems that decide whether humanoid robots make money: generalization and reliability.

Tesla laid out an updated timeline for Full Self-Driving, its Cybercab, and the Optimus robot in a recent meeting with JPMorgan at its Fremont factory. The bank walked away with claims that FSD v15 is a “step-change,” that today’s HW4 computer can handle unsupervised driving, and that Optimus could go on sale to outside buyers as soon as the second half of 2027.

Most of it repeats promises Tesla has made, and missed, before.

Elon Musk has directly rejected a popular fan theory that Tesla is secretly further ahead on Optimus than it lets on, warning instead that production of its humanoid robot “will be extremely slow at first.”

The comment cuts against a bullish narrative that Tesla’s quiet stretch on Optimus is a strategic head-fake — and lines up with the company’s own repeatedly delayed timeline.

During Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings call today, CEO Elon Musk confirmed that Optimus robot production will begin at Fremont in late July or August — just four months after the last Model S and X roll off the line in early May.

Musk warned, however, that initial output will be “quite slow,” calling it “literally impossible to predict” the production rate this year given Optimus has 10,000 unique parts across an entirely new production line.

Just how big is the market for humanoid robots? Big enough to soak up a whopping ~75 GWh of solid-state battery capacity between now and 2035 – nearly 1500x growth!

Elon Musk admitted on Tesla’s Q4 2025 earnings call today that the company doesn’t have any Optimus robots doing useful work in its factories right now.

This is a striking admission, given that Musk has spent the past two years claiming the opposite.

Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics has hired Milan Kovac, Tesla’s former senior vice president and head of the Optimus humanoid robot program, as a group adviser and outside director.

The move is a major blow to Tesla’s humanoid robot ambitions and a significant coup for Hyundai, which is clearly serious about dominating the nascent humanoid robot market.

A new video surfacing from a Tesla demonstration in Miami this weekend shows the Optimus humanoid robot taking a nasty fall. But it’s not the fall itself that is raising eyebrows, it’s the specific hand movements the robot made on its way down, which strongly suggest it was mimicking a remote operator frantically removing a VR headset.

At today’s Tesla shareholder meeting, Tesla CEO Elon Musk got right to the point in making his trademark ridiculous pronouncements, suggesting that criminals should be let out of prison and followed by a crime-preventing robot instead.

Elon Musk needs Tesla investors to vote for his $1 trillion payday so that he can control a robot army. Yes, really, that’s what he said.

Tesla has lost another leader of its Optimus humanoid robot program, which is upsetting those who bet on Tesla’s stock (TSLA), as CEO Elon Musk says most of Tesla’s value is tied to the robot.

Tesla’s humanoid robot program, Optimus, is reportedly in disarray amid the departure of the senior vice president in charge, Milan Kovac.

Production has been delayed due to a new redesign, as the robot has yet to prove useful in Tesla’s factories.

Tesla’s head of Optimus humanoid robot, Milan Kovac, announced that he is leaving the automaker after 9 years.

It leaves just as CEO Elon Musk claimed that the humanoid robot is going to make Tesla a”$25 trillion company.”

Tesla has shared a video of the progress of its Optimus humanoid robot, but it still looks like it is catching up to the competition.

Elon Musk says that Tesla aims to build 10,000 Optimus robots this year, but he admits that it is an ambitious goal.

Tesla has unveiled a new and upgraded hand for its Optimus humanoid robot and released an impressive albeit still teleoperated demonstration.

We didn’t learn much new from Tesla’s Robotaxi event last night, but one piece of information we were looking forward to was a little information on Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot. And we got some, but it’s maybe a little less flattering to Tesla than some might have liked.

Tesla held its quarterly report yesterday, and stated that six major products would be ready for action next year. This would suggest that Tesla has a truly historic year coming up for it, set to disrupt trucking, affordable EVs, sportscars, taxis, driving in general, and, oh, just all human work.

But we’ve heard all this before, and forgive us for saying that it seems slightly more likely that the boy is crying wolf.

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, the Cybertruck gets homolgated in Canada, Elon delays the Optimus robot for up to a full year, Hyundai’s feeling skittish about a possible victory for Donald Trump this November, and a Club Car shows off a real MAN’s truck – finally!

Elon Musk has delayed the rollout of the Tesla Optimus humanoid robot compared to a timeline shared just a few months ago.

Elon Musk is betting Tesla on its Optimus program, which he now says will add tens of trillion of dollars to its valuation.

He added that Tesla should have over 1,000 humanoid robots working in its factories next year, but he is delaying a recently shared timeline.