I’m not a robotics expert, so I’ve been particularly keen to hear what robotics experts think of Tesla’s Optimus presentation the other day. The core arguments from Elon Musk and many Tesla fans regarding why Optimus is such a big deal are: Tesla will find a way to mass produce it at relatively low cost, Tesla is adding a brain to the robot, and it needs to be in the form of a human so that it can perform tasks designed to be done by humans. I don’t see any strong arguments against those things, but I know they are broad-brushed claims and quite vague. What about the details that I can’t see, that a common Tesla fan can’t see, and that perhaps even an engineer working on Optimus can’t see?
Let’s start with Dennis Hong. Dennis is a professor of mechanical & aerospace engineering at UCLA. He’s Director of RoMeLa: Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory. With this title and being an independent expert in the separate world of academia, I was particularly interested to see his opinion. He was clearly excited as AI Day 2 arrived, but not in a sycophantic way. Luckily, he put his thoughts in a good little 13-post Twitter thread.
First of all, Dennis demonstrates his wisdom by acknowledging upfront what the event was about. It wasn’t about pumping up the stock (Tesla’s stock price typically drops after events like this), but rather about Tesla’s #1 challenge: attracting the best engineers in the world. Tesla does particularly well in this regard, often #1 or #2 on lists of top places engineers want to work, but that doesn’t mean attracting the best talent isn’t Tesla’s top challenge. From various public statements Elon Musk has made as well as private DMs to me, a couple of years ago, I came to the conclusion that this is challenge #1 for Tesla. Dennis states, “The energy and excitement at AI Day2 was amazing. ‘AI day’ is actually a recruitment event, and in that sense I believe the event was a big success. It was also incredible to see all the new technologies Tesla has been working on including the Optimus humanoid robot prototype.” If Dennis thinks Tesla succeeded in its top aim for AI Day 2, I think that’s worth taking note of — maybe more than anything else in his thread.
Dennis also quickly addresses two of the top criticisms he had seen of the event. “I am aware of critics who say that the prototype had nothing new that they haven’t seen elsewhere, and that there are other more impressive humanoids. There are also people who have doubts on the aggressive timeline Elon had proposed, and I do not necessarily disagree with them.” I think those are the two biggest critiques I’ve seen. But I think they are the two biggest because they stuck, because they both have a bit of truth to them. It seems that’s Dennis Hong’s point here.
“That being said, I am a true believer of the future with humanoid robots and their eventual applications, that they will be used in our everyday lives ‘one day’ and make our lives better. And for that to happen, we need to start somewhere and project Optimus is just that.” That seems like a ringing endorsement. While he may not be onboard the train of Tesla fans who think Tesla robots are going to change the world by 2030, he does seem to think …….
Source: https://cleantechnica.com/2022/10/03/what-do-robotics-experts-think-of-teslas-optimus/