Elon Musk revealed the latest generation of his Optimus robot on stage. They didn’t do much: they walked slowly into the audience, accompanied by protective Tesla employees, while Musk hyped them up.
“The Optimus will walk amongst you,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk qips. “You’ll be able to walk right up to them, and they will serve drinks.”
Musk explains it can basically “do anything” and mentions examples like walking your dog, babysitting your kids, mowing your lawn, serving you drinks, etc. He said it will cost $20,000 to $30,000 “long term.”
“I think this will be the biggest product ever of any kind,” Musk says.
They had some interacting with attendees, handing out cups of ice and playing rock-paper-scissors, but I’d bet those were remote controlled by other engineers, out of sight. The claim that they’d be able to take care of your pets or kids is ludicrous, coming from a guy notorious for his neglect of, and abuse of, his children.
He’s not going to be able to produce a reliable robot with all those capabilities for $30,000, and no, I’m not going to spend tens of thousands of dollars to own a big clumsy machine to take care of my evil cat poorly, and to serve me drinks. We recently had to replace our refrigerator, and we just laughed at the idea of getting one that had internet access and a drinks dispenser on its door…why would we want that monstrosity in our home, when you can’t even store a package of frozen peas in it?
As usual, Musk is just confirming that he’s a very bad salesman whose lies are getting increasingly unbelievable.
Who’s going to come up with Musk’s three laws of robotics?
He’s becoming PT Barnum at this point.
Robots are excellent for repetitive tasks where items are presented to them in the exactly right spot.
Despite the impressive achiewements by Boston Dynamics robots, the problems with moving robots are far from solved.
.
As for Musk, the engineers working for him have made one good achievement (Tesla cars) and one excellent achievement (re-usable self-landing first stages of launch vehicles).
Anything else promoted by Musk should be treated with suspicion.
Cue re-runs of I, Robot on TV with maybe a series spin-off. And I’m waiting for the row to brew up over what gender they should be, how DEI applies to them and robot rights in general.
So Irving Police Department spent $150k on zhuzhed up cybertruck in their important fight to tell kids to just say no.
I’d think I’d need to take drugs in order to forget that fucking ugly monstrosity. You got to admire Pedoguy’s sales skills, he managed to convince people to buy an fugly ute (pickup), that looks like a space ship from the original Elite game, and that rusts in the rain.
He cannot get FSD to work on roads along side human drivers. And as chaotic as roads can be, he wants to sell normies on the idea that his robots can interact with them with rules of behavior that make less sense than road rules much less look after children.
How the Musk-y have fallen ..Oh wait, he was never that metaphorcially high anyhow – his personal drug-taking aside.. Just massively over-hyped and over-promoted. Oh and obscenely, dangeriously for the rest of us wealthy.
At least as a supposed visionary and leader although maybe once for a short while at SpaceX? Hmmm.. dunno. probly not even then?
SpaceX, OTOH, really have worked wonders and made a huge difference. Pity we have to rely on them so much when it comes to space exploration these days although as long as Elon Musk himself stays away and doesn’t fuck them up..
Also reeeeaaaaally believable that the self driving taxi without any controls will be in production by 2026.
I think he has promised fully self driving cars really soon for the last 10 years or so.
I also am somewhat cautious about his claim from a few weeks ago that his “Spaceship” will fly to Mars in 2026 and will transport the first humans there by 2028, with an actual city on the planet in further 20 years. Really depressing to find so many news outlet reporting this stupid claim with a round of applause for the Twit.
Stevor@7: Yeah, it would be really nice if there was another option for space exploration, specially on that wasn’t completely controlled by the oligarchs.
Maybe ESA will get their stuff together eventually? (Read the last sentence in a sarcastic voice)
Well yes, but be fair. Musk’s robots could probably neglect or abuse your pets or children.
I wonder if Musk can build a robot that will behave as if it actually likes him, or if that’s a task too difficult even for a purpose-built machine?
I bet Optimus could replace Musk. They’re both inarticulate, clumsy and useless. As suggested, they would do just as well at taking care of his children as he does…perhaps even better if they don’t have the bigotry built in.
Isn’t tRump talking about how he’s going to put Muskrat in his administration now?
I’m sorry, but WHY THE FLYING FUCK HASN’T MUSKRAT BEEN SUED BY HASBRO?! It is DEAD ASS obvious WTF he’s doing here.
Oh, Muskrat? Sweetie? Sugar? THAT CLUNKY ASS POS AIN’T AN AUTOBOT AND NEVER WILL BE.
The elongated muskrat was always a delusional ‘legend in his own mind’. It proves how destructive crapitallism is when a failure of a human being like him can be so financially successful on the poorly paid work of others. I love the idea of an EV. I really admired Otmar Ebenhoech when he created EVs years ago. He used his own talent and skill and created early EVs that performed wonderfully. The muskrat is the exact opposite. He is an ignorant, hate spewing, lying no talent waste of oxygen. Why to the ignorant, drooling, corporate owned media keep putting him on pedestals? I’m angered and disgusted!
As one of our engineers says: Oh, and will this fever dream come to pass just like his saying he will put humans on mars by 2026? Hey, muskrat, real stainless steel alloys DON’T RUST, you bullshitter. That slimer truk would work better as a doorstop!
(I guess we won’t be allowed in his fan club)
One more remark, then I need to calm down and reduce my blood pressure. I want it to be that “You’ll be able to walk right up to them and destroy them with a taser”.
I knew Optimus. I grew up with G1 Transformers toys. You are no Optimus.
@14: It’s because “Optimus” is a Latin word. Hasbro can’t trademark it.
Recursive Rabbit @ 18
I knew Optimus. It kept me fed and watered at -40oC when I worked in pyramid tents in Antarctica. You (Musk) are no Optimus.
Did he have someone doing a goofy dance while dressed as a robot?
I always find the refrigerator with a water dispenser such a silly money grab. There is probably a kitchen sink nearby where you can get water from, and you don’t have to pay extra for that feature. The expensive filter in your refrigerator is not going to do anything more significant than what a Brita filter would, which are less expensive, and can be attached to your kitchen faucet. You can also buy cheap ice cube trays, and store extra ice cubes in a plastic bag, instead of losing freezer space to an ice maker. Personally, if your tap water isn’t safe to drink, then you need to get your city council to do something, instead of buying an expensive refrigerator.
It’s kind of expensive. And of course it’ll at least double or triple in price before anyone can buy it. To think you could make a mint off of nostalgia for 70-ish years of sci-fi stories without selling any actual sci-fi stories. Personally I’d rather go buy a book, film, or tv series. They’re much cheaper and I’ll actually get what I’m paying for.
I’m also thinking how discouraging this must be for any engineers working on the project. It doesn’t really matter what they do. They could phone it in or do something truly amazing to advance the field. And either way their boss will just lie about it so much that even their best possible accomplishments will seem like rubbish in comparison.
In car terms it’d be like he promised all Tesla cars would fly before ever making one. Obviously none of them can and it’s not even a remote possibility as a product decades from now. But if he’d said that it wouldn’t matter that they mostly go down the road okay (as long as you’re driving them and not the computer). Everyone would just rightly complain that they weren’t the flying cars they’d been promised.
Walter Solomon @ #21 — “Did he have someone doing a goofy dance while dressed as a robot?” Yes, a rather large one, and for some reason the robot-man sported a long red tie around its neck.
Why do I want a robot to walk my dog (when she was alive)? That’s my job. I don’t understand why these tech-bros want to ‘solve’ problems which define me as a person. If robots did everything they plan for me, I wouldn’t have more time for important things, I’d only have time to waste on pointless shit like consume social media or jerk off. The robots would be doing the important things, things I might find hard like raising my child, but still the things that make a life.
How one becomes the richest bloke in the world and stays the richest is remarkable given he’s a very bad salesman whose lies are getting increasingly unbelievable. Just as well he’s not good at selling stuff.
(He’s worth tens of billions more now than when he bought Twitter)
shermanj@16–
Stainless steel is rust resistant, not rust immune. The level of corrosion resistance depends on the grade of steel, its environment, and other factors. And stainless steel cars can look fantastic. Check out these beauties. But I’m not defending Musk here. There are good reasons why stainless steel bodies have only occasionally been produced in the auto industry, and mostly in extremely limited numbers.
The only mass-produced stainless steel car I know was the DeLorean DMC-12, famous from Back to the Future, but it ended up bankrupting DeLorean (although not because of the stainless steel). DeLorean’s ad slogan was “DeLorean. The Vanishing Breed.” It appears the Delphic Oracle has moved into marketing.
Another thread about #QElon, another sycophantic defensive comment by Morales insisting we can never question the intelligence or decisions of a rich man.
“Money is honey, my little sonny, and a rich man’s joke is always funny!”
Raging Bee, gotta love how you twist things around.
<snicker>
Stating a fact is being sycophantic, in your estimation.
But sure, he is most incompetent at acquiring money and influence.
A hopeless loser.
—
If I say whatshername — Miley, or, I dunno, Madonna or um Beyonce or oh yeah Tailor Smith — is a useless person, your pointing out that they are rich and famous and successful would be similarly sycophantic, no?
(Heh heh heh)
Ah, WTF. Might as well drive it home.
You do get this is entirely within your imagination, don’t you?
I did no such thing.
(I mean, try to quote me doing that. I dare you!)
[meta]
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2024/10/08/taylor-swift-becomes-worlds-richest-female-musician-heres-who-is-right-behind-her/
Perhaps it was similarly lucky they got wealthy; but hey, at least they produce usefull stuff, unlike Elon.
(Ahem)
(Would thinking there was some sort of competence at hand would be sycophantic here?)
@26 John Morales — I have an answer to that. At a certain point of wealth accumulation, it becomes far easier to gain money than to lose it. Elon is well past that point now, where losing significant amounts of money would be a noteworthy accomplishment, and gaining it says nearly nothing about his merits. And, of course, he’s been at or near that threshold his entire life, thanks to his father’s ownership of an emerald mine in apartheid South Africa.
He doesn’t need to be good at selling things to make enormous amounts of money, because he already has enormous amounts of money, and money equals power. And if further reason were required… he doesn’t need to be good at selling things when credulous bootlickers, both in the media ecosystem and of the free-range sort Republican propaganda has been working at cultivating for decades, will sell it for him. Combine his advertising budget and the downright eagerness of others to believe him, and all he really needs to do personally is make outlandishly overhyped claims and pay others to take care of the rest.
Jemolk, I can’t dispute you.
Thing is, I reckon all those people who are on the billionaires list are well beyond that certain point of wealth accumulation.
BTW, my list was basically a thrown dart.
For example: https://www.forbes.com/profile/oprah-winfrey/
One can see that 1172 people in the world are worth even more than her.
(But hey, she’s supporting Kamala Harris, so… yeah ;)
—
Let us remember a billion is one thousand millions.
(Or, one million thousands. Why is that not used?)
@27 chrislawson wrote: stainless steel is rust resistant, not rust immune. The level of corrosion resistance depends on the grade of steel, its environment, and other factors.
I reply: I must presume when you say ‘grade of steel’ you mean quality as in purity. But, that is just one small factor. Stainless steel comes in dozens of different alloys, many of which are formulated so they do not rust. Some real world examples are: One of our engineers has 70+ year old solingen rostfrei knives and cutlery that has been left in water and even in corrosive cleaning chemicals and it has never rusted. Another is that we have stainless tools and parts that are 65+ years old and have been left out in the weather and they have never rusted.
It is quite apparent from all the warnings that come with the cyber turkey that they are using an alloy composed of the wrong amounts of different metals and that is why they rust so quickly and easily.
And why the AF would anyone want any sort of robot to serve drinks? Does anyone really believe any sort of robot would mix one’s own favorite drinks better than one could mix for oneself? Even if such a robot was affordable, it would still take up space in one’s house and get in the way of everyone in the house, as well as having to maneuver itself around all those humans as they move about (sober or drunk). That’s just a ridiculously complicated and expensive “solution” to a really simple problem that humans have been able to manage very well for a very long time.
And making a HUMANOID robot is just asinine. Sure a human form could do a wide variety of things — after you’ve programmed and perfected the “brain” necessary to manage all those complex interrelated muscle movements that even the simplest tasks would entail (like, I dunno, walking across a room with a tray of food and drinks without bumping into people or furniture). But even if you get past that hurdle (which #QElon shows no sign of even comprehending, let alone solving), it would still be cheaper, and more reliable, to just buy much simpler specialized machines to handle the same tasks without losing balance or falling over.
I suspect #QElon had to add “they will serve drinks” to his robots’ list of (alleged) capabilities, just to pad the list and make the product look more useful and versatile than it might ever turn out to be. (Which kinda reminds me of those HP ads for a laser-jet printer that could also mow the lawn.)
Also, I agree with nomadiq: if I wanted a robot to walk my dog, why would I have bought a dog in the first place? Even if #QElon were a trustworthy person and all his companies were trustworthy, I still wouldn’t want any of their products taking care of either my pets or my kids — not if I cared about ’em anyway. (And there’s also issues of child safety and legal liability.)
Imagination is a thing.
Teledildonics.
(Haptic interfaces)
[Utterly OT, but genuine]
You’ve not seen the reality of dogs chained in the back yard, have you?
Unfortunately (and, let’s face it, evilly) in our milieu dogs are commodities.
—
So, for dog-lovers everywhere:
It is quite apparent from all the warnings that come with the cyber turkey that they are using an alloy composed of the wrong amounts of different metals and that is why they rust so quickly and easily.
Yeah, most cars have this stuff called “paint” that covers the outside metal surfaces and keeps them from rusting for a very long time. That’s been around for almost as long as cars themselves, and they’ve been improving it a lot since I was a kid. So maybe #QElon either never noticed it, didn’t understand it, or forgot why people used it. But hey, I’m sure Morales will agree that #QElon knows more about manufacturing than anyone else alive, right?
You’ve not seen the reality of dogs chained in the back yard, have you?
What makes you think I haven’t?
Oh dear, Raging Bee:
Upon what basis do you hold that putative belief? That’s just feeble.
You are making shit up no less so than Trump does, which makes you no less a bullshitter.
For the umpteenth time: I dare you to quote me to that effect.
Here, for you: “At a certain point of wealth accumulation, it becomes far easier to gain money than to lose it. Elon is well past that point now, where losing significant amounts of money would be a noteworthy accomplishment, and gaining it says nearly nothing about his merits.”
You know, I noted I could not dispute that, since I personally think that’s the situation.
(Thus the adduction of other billionaires, though of course my point did a <whoosh> over your head)
More?
I quote: “if I wanted a robot to walk my dog, why would I have bought a dog in the first place?”
Need I elaborate? Are you really that dim?
(Why would anyone buy a dog and chain them in the back yard?)
Not that I think you are dim; I am merely using weightier rhetorical techniques, and you are struggling to pretend to competence.
Point being, dogs are not generally bought in order to be walked.
(And, you know… “bought”. Says it all. They are commodities, in our milieu, and I don’t like that)
The elongated muskrat is a conman and ahole just like tRUMP. I knew he would not be honest and caring towards hurricane victims. It was just confirmed:
The “free” internet Musk offered to Hurricane Helene and Milton victims
comes with a $400-for-Musk catch.
https://crooksandliars.com/2024/10/elon-musk-pulls-bait-and-switch-hurricane
And, if you are too busy recovering from the storm to dump starlink after the free ONE month, you immediately, automatically get billed $120 for month two and on, and on.
IIRC, Ukraine got (bought?) starlink equipment and the muskrat turned it all off in support of putin WTF!!!
crossposted on infinite thread
(Why would anyone buy a dog and chain them in the back yard?)
Do you really think someone who does that would buy a laughably expensive robot for their dog — even if they could afford it, which most known dog-abusers clearly can’t?
You did miss the point, RB.
Those chained dogs exist. The why is irrelevant, it’s an existence proof.
Rhetorically asking “why” would people do that does not change that it’s a thing that exists, and does not dispute that another thing may exist with no obvious “why”.
(Why would anyone buy a multi-tonne monster car when a simple small sedan would suit them fine?
Yet they do; same thing exactly. People are often not rational in their acquisitions)
—
You are also mistaken about “dog-abusers”; far as most of those people are concerned, the dogs are fine.
They may be bored out of their minds and lack exercise and stimulation and interaction, but they get food, water and shelter. It’s not active maliciousness.
@44 John Morales wrote: People are often not rational in their acquisitions
I must agree, but, amplify that by saying, Too many people are often not rational in any way!
how is he not in jail yet? how many times has he mis-represented the capabilities of products he intends to sell:
“full self driving”
“robo taxi’s”
“tesla solar -roof/shingles”
space -x (capabilities/timelines etc)
and these ‘autonomous robots’ – that are remote controlled (or in previous stock holder meeting – a guy in a costume)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/yes-there-were-humans-controlling-tesla-s-bartending-robots-behind-the-scenes/ar-AA1sfPOT
theranos CEO is in jail for this shit – elon should be too