Once upon a time there was Optimus, an early prototype Tesla robot who limped, a little awkwardly, across the stage. Today, the latest footage reveals that this pile of scrap metal has made giant strides, or at least safer ones. First of all, learning to walk (only forward, and slowly) without the uncertainties of the first apparition. But that is not all.
Chegelida manina
For heaven's sake, don't quote me Boston Dynamics e Atlas: it is an extremely different project, with different purposes and philosophy, incomparable. Here we are talking about a robot designed to make the journey from the prototype to a civilian home in the shortest possible time (and it will still take as long as it takes).
Personally, I consider it good progress that Optimus no longer walks as if he defecated in his pants, but there's more. In the newly released videos, the Tesla Bot collects and recognizes objects by learning on its own or with human examples. Imagine him around the house picking up socks for you: maybe it's no longer such a distant prospect.
Optimus' journey
The most surprising thing about these videos, presented by Elon Musk to Tesla shareholders, is what is not seen but known. Optimus' progress has come in a rather short space of time, just seven months.
At this rate, what will Tesla Bots do in two years? These things are learning to discover and memorize their surroundings and train their artificial intelligence thanks to movements tracked by humans, it's no joke.
One guy taught Optimus to do a basic task (picking up objects from one container and placing them in another), and he performed it without any particular problems.
It's already a little squeezing
To start running, you must first know how to walk. The progress of Optimus shows us that somehow these two processes are happening in parallel.
The time is not far away when the rumors will focus on the first adoption scenarios (plausibly industrial and military, despite the "home" vocation of these robots). And it will be time to materialize the fear of the unknown, because robotics will lay all its cards on the table, and we will see them.
After all, to paraphrase the famous film, Optimus and his robot colleagues are a bit like that box of chocolates: you never know what you'll get... if you eat them all.
