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Tesla Announces a Humanoid Robot “Tesla Bot”

electrek.co

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Re: Tesla Announces a Humanoid Robot “Tesla Bot”

#251

Post by hdjjhhvvhga »

croddin wrote: post #176
CommieBobDole wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a good point; Musk does sometimes announce things that essentially serve as a placeholder for "we're going to do this thing once the technology improves enough to make it feasible", and this is likely more of the same. But "useful humanoid robot" is way more forward-looking than anything else he's done this with; the closest thing would be the whole "full self-driving without LIDAR" thing, which keeps getting…

> But "useful humanoid robot" is way more forward-looking than anything else he's done this with Other aspirational goals he has set include a colony of a million people on Mars and a neural lace. I think a humanoid robot is less ambitious than either of these two.

And, frankly speaking, it is a goal worth pursuing: not just per se, but for all technological advancements it would need to make in order to be successful.

Re: Tesla Announces a Humanoid Robot “Tesla Bot”

#252

Post by tinco »

mciancia wrote: post #242
OnlineGladiator wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I had to make a bet on when it was possible, I'd say 25 years. Maybe 10 if Tesla goes all-in on robots and spends tens of billions on it, Manhattan project style. I have a decade of experience in robotics (including both humanoid robots and self-driving cars) and I think this is optimistic. Robotics is a wonderful field if you like to work on hard research problems. It is a terrible field if you're trying to inv…

Why? I mean, what are current problems with making this work? Hardware/mechanical part? Software? Energy source? All of those? I would assume it's software, same as with level5 self driving (?)

No, robotics is not a software problem. If it was then it would actually be feasible. All it has to do to be useful is walk around without bumping into things, Boston dynamics already has the software for that.

Re: Tesla Announces a Humanoid Robot “Tesla Bot”

#253

Post by mns »

Geee wrote: post #34
dartharva wrote: post #22

Why humanoid? That's such an inefficient and overcomplicated structure for a "menial job" home robot. This is either a PR stunt or a luxury product.

It needs to be compatible with all human spaces and human tools. It'll need to be general purpose to keep unit costs low. This is why the human form is the best. It's not a menial home robot. It's designed to replace humans in every kind of physical labor.

You have cars (which are basically a box on wheels) smashing in clearly visible objects, and you expect a fully functional walking and handling humanoid robot to fold your laundry or even carry a box from one floor to another. I don't think any of us will still be alive when that will happen.

Re: Tesla Announces a Humanoid Robot “Tesla Bot”

#254

Post by rmst »

CommieBobDole wrote: post #53

Musk seems to have fallen for the idea that since he's had great success in one or two areas, he can easily repeat that success in other areas, even if the difficulty is much higher and entirely different skills are required. SpaceX and Tesla are great achievements, but they are primarily stories of successfully implementing and improving existing technologies with innovative engineering and business practices (like…

It doesn't matter if this isn't happening in any useful form in a reasonable amount of time. It's still great for hiring and funding.

He has used the same hiring technique since x.com:

1) announce overambitious, relatable, unoriginal goal (e.g. human settlement on Mars)

2) present vague, relatable, unoriginal strategy (e.g. reusable rockets)

3) hire people

4) actually have them work on more incremental stuff (e.g. launch provider services)

5) profit

Re: Tesla Announces a Humanoid Robot “Tesla Bot”

#255

Post by nixarn »

mrjangles wrote: post #146
rococode wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel people said the same thing about him for SpaceX and Tesla back when he was just the wacky PayPal guy. Remember SpaceX's first launch was in 2006 (before the iPhone existed!) and it's only started getting really serious traction in the past 5 years. Elon's no stranger to things that don't have any "useful form" for well over a decade. I'm quite certain he's aware of the realistic timelines, and he sells a diffe…

I like Musk, and I've been following his progress since 2011. I always thought he seemed very intelligent and seemed to really understand what he was doing. However I have to agree with the person you are replying to. There has been the sort of myth going around that making rockets is hard. It used to be hard... 50 years ago. That is literally the technology Musk has been using for the last 20 years: 50 year old tech…

> Furthermore, if you have been following closely, you would have seen the huge and humiliating mess ups he had with Tesla where he literally flushed billions and billions of dollars down the toilet.

I have been following it closely since 2012. Not sure where he flushed the money down the toilet? And with that he still grew the company well. Without Elon Tesla would never have become the 666B company that is today.

> Since Musk, another 4 private companies have reached orbit, or will reach orbit this year (Firefly, Rocket Lab, Relativity Space, and Virgin Orbit)

Rocket Lab was founded in 2006 and reached orbit in 2018 (and failed in 2020)?

Virgin Orbit's vehicle LauncherOne was started in 2007 (under Virgin Galactic) began operations in 2021.

And we'll see how Firefly and Relativity Space succeeds with their launches.

Re: Tesla Announces a Humanoid Robot “Tesla Bot”

#258

Post by spiderfarmer »

mlajtos wrote: post #234
FireBeyond wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boston Dynamics? They've been working on such things for years and they're still very much in their infancy.

AFAIK they were avoiding deep learning like the plague for the locomotion. I don't know if something has changed, but that's why the progress was slow.

Which is interesting given recent developments in AI motor control: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/04/08/1022176/boston-d...

Re: Tesla Announces a Humanoid Robot “Tesla Bot”

#259

Post by ricardobeat »

CommieBobDole wrote: post #106
csmeder wrote: post #66

It is interesting that many of the top comments are as dismissive as: “No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame,” When you look at Tesla’s talent in: AI + motors + batteries + manufacturing I can’t believe how negative and dismissive the comments are. Can we not have some appreciation for what Tesla HAS achieved vs only focusing on missed ship dates? The part that I think is going over peoples head is that for so m…

I don't dismiss Tesla's successes at all, but they are primarily repackaging and improving technologies that already exist. They didn't need to invent the lithium-ion battery, or the electric motor, or the automobile; all of those things already existed and were available to be adapted to Tesla's desired use. Humanoid robots, however, are a much harder problem than building a mass-market-ready electric car. In order…

> They didn't need to invent the lithium-ion battery, or the electric motor, or the automobile

They do have their own batteries, their own motors, and a pretty unique automobile. I'm not so sure the point stands. If the "they are only using existing technology" line was true, you'd have seen a ton of companies from China, or the traditional automakers, take the market before Tesla had any chance to compete. Somehow Tesla had time to build their own factories and parts from scratch and still beat them...

Re: Tesla Announces a Humanoid Robot “Tesla Bot”

#260

Post by mhh__ »

justicezyx wrote: post #140
CommieBobDole wrote: post #53

Musk seems to have fallen for the idea that since he's had great success in one or two areas, he can easily repeat that success in other areas, even if the difficulty is much higher and entirely different skills are required. SpaceX and Tesla are great achievements, but they are primarily stories of successfully implementing and improving existing technologies with innovative engineering and business practices (like…

No no-no This type of reasoning simply does not understand the market competition. Once there is a market, the goal is to win the competition, not to hit some technical bar. Is there a better player in the industry in building humanoid robot? I rarely see any that is better than Tesla. Modern cars are essentially a robot, or the closest thing in tech stack. Is Musk stretching himself? Of cuz, that's how new things ar…

What does better mean? I assume not the fit and finish of these "robots"
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