Elon Musk posts a video of Tesla robot Optimus folding a shirt

In a 30 second video uploaded by CEO Elon Musk, Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus can be seen folding a shirt with the pace of an octogenarian. Optimus folds a shirt The robot first removes the black shirt from a laundry basket, spreads it on the table before it, and folds it easily. As has been pointed out by a report in , viewers caught a little behind the scenes sneak peek.

About two or three times in the video, one can see something scooting into the bottom right corner of the screen. It appears that an engineer seems to be hanging out just off screen, giving the robot some choreography tips. As an advisory, Musk added, “Optimus cannot yet do this autonomously, but certainly will be able to do this fully autonomously and in an arbitrary environment (won’t require a fixed table with a box that has only one shirt).” In simple terms, the robot's activities are probably planned and set up in advance, like following a script.

This is done to showcase how well the robot's parts, like joints and limbs, work together rather than demonstrating its ability to think and learn on its own. When Elon Musk adds a disclaimer, it's like saying, "The really difficult tasks for the robot to handle will come later." So, what you see now might look impressive, but the robot's true intelligence challenges are yet to come, a feat that is quite adept at.

This kind of technology, where someone else is controlling the motions of a robot in real time, has existed since the 1960s. Doctors use robotic assistance such as this to operate on patients. Musk made waves in the summer of 2021 when he introduced Optimus for the first time. But, during the announcement, the stage wasn't presented with a high tech robot but with a person busting a move in a robot suit.

That gave content to a lot of members. Last month, Musk posted a video unveiling the , an upgrade from its previous version the Optimus Gen 1. The latest model has a 30% walking speed boost and weighs 10 kilograms less than its predecessor. Certain experts contend that Optimus has the potential to transform the manufacturing sector, offering an economically efficient means of producing goods.

The company has not disclosed whether Tesla plans to employ these robots to manufacture their vehicles. But it's safe to say that we won't get an in house chore robot from Tesla anytime soon..