Tesla’s Robot isn’t Superhuman Yet, But it Can Cook a Meal

Last week, Tesla’s Optimus robot impressed with its dance moves. This week, it’s showcasing a range of everyday chores—executed with surprising finesse for a humanoid robot.

Tesla Bot Tackles Household Chores Using Natural Language Commands

In a new video, the “Tesla bot” responds to natural language commands as it performs tasks like tossing trash into a bin, wiping a table with a dustpan and brush, tearing off a paper towel, stirring food in a pot, and vacuuming the floor, among others.

While the performance may not revolutionize humanoid robotics, it highlights the steady progress Tesla engineers are achieving, as the robot’s actions and movements continue to grow more sophisticated.

Optimus Team Aims to Train Tesla Bot Using Human Task Videos from the Internet

In a post on X, Optimus team lead Milan Kovac commented on the latest video, saying, “One of our goals is to have Optimus learn directly from internet videos of humans performing tasks.” To clarify, this doesn’t mean the robot will watch videos like a person would; rather, it will learn from the rich data those videos provide, including demonstrations of actions, movements, and behaviors.

Kovac revealed that his team recently achieved a “significant breakthrough” allowing them to transfer a large portion of learning directly from first-person human videos to the robots. This advancement, he explained, enables them to train Optimus on new tasks much faster than relying solely on teleoperated data.

The next step is to make Optimus more dependable by having it practice tasks independently—either in the physical world or through simulations—using reinforcement learning, a trial-and-error-based method that refines behavior over time.

Elon Musk, who has been a strong advocate for Optimus since its 2021 debut, has said that “thousands” of these robots could eventually work alongside humans in Tesla factories, handling tasks that are “dangerous, repetitive, [and] boring.”

While Tesla is best known for its electric vehicles, the company is now competing with a growing number of global tech firms racing to commercialize humanoid robots for use in factories, homes, or even entirely new human-robot environments yet to be envisioned.

Read the original article on: Digital Trends

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