Tesla’s humanoid robot, which goes by the name Optimus, was put on display at one of the company’s stores in New York City last week, with hopes of attracting more customers and increasing sales, according to Electrek.
The Tesla bot was first announced in 2021 when an actual human being pretended to be a humanoid robot and made robot moves and dance routines. But then, in May 2023, the company showed a video of several Optimus units walking on their own and picking up stuff, with no sketchy costume in sight.
It was quite impressive, and Tesla reportedly wants to bank in on the robot’s wow factor to increase EV sales in the United States even more. For reference, the Elon Musk-led firm delivered a record-setting 466,140 passenger vehicles globally in the second quarter of the year.
The Austin-based marque has been experimenting with static displays of the Optimus robot in its Chinese stores, after observing that the public was attracted to it at trade shows and expos. Now, the experiment has been extended to North America, with Manhattan being the first to get a piece of Tesla’s bipedal machine.
It’s worth noting that the bot that’s on display is purely a prop; it doesn’t move and it certainly doesn’t dance. But it’s there, ready to get photos of it taken by enthusiastic fans.
Tesla hopes that its robot will eventually replace humans on the vehicle assembly line doing repetitive tasks and ultimately take the role of an assistant for humans in need, helping people around the house with basic chores. But as of now, the bipedal computer is nowhere near completion, we don’t know when it will be ready to be sold to the general public, if ever.
Source: Electrek