On social networks, Elon Musk’s latest video, which shows the humanoid robot Tesla Optimus folding a shirt, is not really authentic. Because the machine is in fact guided by an engineer.
And to think that we counted on him to do our household chores! Earlier this week, Elon Musk shared on the social network X (formerly Twitter) a video of his humanoid robot, called Optimus, folding a shirt. If the founder of Tesla recognized that the robot was in fact not autonomous in its task, the study of the video shows us the full – theoretical – potential of robotics. We say “theoretical” because for the moment, the promise of robot-assisted life seems very distant.
The Tesla Optimus robot tricks us with a nice magic trick
In the video, Optimus folds a shirt with remarkable precision (but a certain slowness). And if many people were able to get carried away by shouting genius, all it took was an attentive look revealing that a guiding hand seemed to reproduce the same movement, for the enthusiasm to subside. Elon Musk very quickly recognized that his robot is not yet autonomous. An off-screen engineer dictates the robot’s movements well, reminiscent of methods used in the past.
The use of off-screen people to guide the movements of robots dates back to the 1960s. This method also raises legitimate questions about real advances in robotics, despite recent videos, it must be said, impressive.
The technology used in Optimus’ video also resembles that used by Disney in 1964 to create an Abe Lincoln robot. The movements were programmed by a person whose actions were then reproduced by the robot.
The road is still long for robotics
Tesla still has a way to go to compete with the leaders in robotics. Recent videos do not show significant advances compared to older technologies, since the robots are still not autonomous.
Some voices are being raised today to talk about marketing and communication stunts. In any case, we know to what extent Musk is banking on domestic robotics, one of his big challenges.
It will be interesting to follow the evolution of the robot in the years to come, as we can do with the humanoids from Boston Dynamics. Future updates could perhaps clarify the real intentions behind the videos, and thus illustrate the significant progress in tomorrow’s robotics, from Tesla and all players in the sector.
Sources: Forbes
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