Tesla engineers are working on a robot to handle dangerous or boring work.
At AI Day, expect updates on FSD technology for eventual self-driving cars,
too. Tesla's artificial intelligence team is pushing ahead with work to create
humanoid robots and build truly self-driving cars. At the company's second
AI Day starting at 5 p.m. PT Friday, expect to see some of the most advanced
examples of AI work around -- but be prepared to wait years before that
technology is ready for the mainstream. The Tesla Bot, a humanoid robot
code-named Optimus that Chief Executive Elon Musk debuted at the first AI Day,
is a likely star of the show. Last year, we only saw specifications, a mockup
dummy and a herky-jerky dance from someone wearing an Optimus outfit in a
peculiar attempt to illustrate what the Tesla Bot would look like. Musk delayed
the second AI Day to wait for a physical Tesla Bot prototype. Previous events in
this vein, like last year's AI Day and the Neuralink debut in 2019, have featured
splashy technology. But they've also been geared to help Musk recruit ambitious
and talented engineers, and the second AI Day follows that pattern. "This event is
meant for recruiting AI & robotics engineers, so will be highly technical," Musk
tweeted Thursday. Mirroring Musk's stance that the Tesla Bot will be "friendly,"
Tesla tweeted an animation of robot hands forming a human heart symbol.