Elon Musk has often been showing Tesla’s Optimus robot on his social media handles and praising the product. In April this year, Musk said that the robot currently being developed in the lab could be ready for sale by the end of 2025. Now in a recent public event, Musk said that the robot can be viewed as a friend by its users.

Recently, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Musk spoke about Tesla’s vision for this ambitious project, and suggested that users could view the Optimus robot as a friend. During his speech, Musk shared his aspirations for the humanoid robot, and compared it to beloved pop culture characters like Star Wars’ R2-D2.

According to a Business Insider report, Musk said that although the robot is not designed to look like a human, it is intended to be aesthetically pleasing. “We want to make the robot look good,” Musk said, noting Tesla’s design.

The Optimus robot is designed to serve as a versatile personal assistant in homes. Musk elaborated on its capabilities, saying it can perform a number of tasks including walking the dog, taking care of the house, babysitting, cooking and even playing the piano. “It’s a generalized human-like robot,” Musk said, outlining the wide range of tasks it’s expected to handle.

Musk also speculated about the widespread impact such robots could have on society. He envisioned a future where each person could have a personal robot, and additional robots could be employed in various industries. He also suggested that robots could eventually outnumber humans, indicating significant changes to the workforce and daily life as these robots become more integrated into various fields.

Tesla Optimus, also known as Tesla Bot, is a conceptual human-like robot being developed by Tesla. It was first announced at the company’s AI Day event in 2021, and is intended to be a general-purpose robot capable of handling a variety of tasks, especially those that are unsafe, repetitive, or boring for humans.
Optimus is still in development, and Tesla has released several updates to demonstrate its progress, the latest being Gen 2 which was revealed in December last year.

In 2022, Tesla unveiled a prototype that could walk and perform simple tasks like picking up objects. “This is literally the first time the robot was operated without a (tether) on stage tonight,” Musk said then, when videos of the robot picking up objects and watering plants were shown. “We didn’t want it to fall on its face,” he added.