Tesla’s humanoid robot got a new hand for Black Friday

Tesla boss Elon Musk has shared a new video showing the automaker’s Optimus robot catching a tennis ball.

“Optimus will be like having your own personal C-3PO & RD-D2 [sic],” Musk commented in the post, suggesting, like many roboticists over the years, that we might one day be able to have a humanoid robot buddy.

Optimus will be like having your own personal C-3PO & RD-D2

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2024

It’s hard enough for some humans to catch a ball one-handed, so equipping a robot with the “brain” power to perform the feat is mightily impressive, with elements such as rapid ball detection, trajectory prediction, motion tracking, and grasp timing all part of the complex process … assuming that what we see in the video is everything it’s cracked up to be.

While the comments section for the original X post is mostly filled with gushing praise for Optimus’s new skill, some question whether the act is truly autonomous or perhaps being performed remotely, with the robot mirroring a human’s movements.

One said that it “looks like a human catching it,” and while few people are really suggesting there’s a person squeezed inside that robot garb, the comment will remind some of the moment when Optimus was introduced to the public in 2021, not as a functioning robot but instead as someone in a skintight bodysuit.

Since then, Tesla has shared various videos showing increasingly advanced prototypes of the robot, which features AI smarts and computer vision based on technology deployed by the driver-assist features on its electric vehicles.

Recently, the automaker was confident enough to let it serve drinks and mingle with guests at a recent event in LA, where it unveiled its first robotaxi.

Musk has said that he expects the humanoid robot to start working at Tesla factories next year, taking care of “dangerous, repetitive, [and] boring tasks.” It could then make it commercially available for other companies in 2026.

In line with Thursday’s C-3PO/R2-D2 comments, Musk said recently that he also imagines Optimus one day serving as a household robot that can do “everything you want: babysit your kid, walk your dog, mow your lawn, get the groceries, just be your friend, serve drinks.”

But getting your hands on one will cost you, as the Tesla chief has suggested that once produced at scale, an Optimus robot could cost around $25,000.