Elon Musk, the visionary entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX, recently took to his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), to showcase the capabilities of Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus. This time, the robot demonstrated its ability to fold shirts, adding to its repertoire of skills that already included boiling eggs and practicing yoga.
In the video posted by Musk, Optimus is seen efficiently picking up a shirt from a basket and executing the folding process with human-like precision, all within a matter of seconds.
Optimus folds a shirt pic.twitter.com/3F5o3jVLq1
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2024
Musk, in a subsequent post, clarified that the robot’s current demonstration is not autonomous but expressed confidence that it will soon achieve full autonomy, performing tasks like shirt folding in diverse environments without the need for a fixed table or specific conditions.
This isn’t the first time Musk has showcased Optimus’s capabilities. In a video shared in September of the previous year, the humanoid robot showcased various tasks, such as sorting colored blocks and engaging in yoga stretches. Subsequently, in December, Musk presented Optimus Gen 2 boiling eggs, highlighting its evolving skill set.
Tesla emphasizes that Optimus’s ability to perform these diverse movements and tasks stems from its capacity for self-calibrating its arms and legs. Operating under Tesla’s AI and robotics division, Optimus follows an AI-first approach, leveraging inference hardware to pave the way for fully self-driving, bipedal robots.
Optimus Gen 2 represents the latest iteration in Tesla’s robotic endeavors, succeeding Optimus Gen 1, which was unveiled in March 2022. As Tesla continues to push the boundaries of AI and robotics, the advancements in Optimus underscore the company’s commitment to developing cutting-edge technologies that could potentially revolutionize various industries. Elon Musk’s posts serve not only as glimpses into the ongoing progress but also as teasers for the exciting possibilities that lie ahead in the world of robotics and automation.
