A new video released from a Tesla demo in Miami this weekend shows the humanoid robot Optimus falling. However, it's not the fall itself that's worrying, but the specific hand movements the robot made as it fell, which strongly suggest it was imitating a remote operator frantically removing a VR headset.
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Humanoid robots are a major focus right now, with billions of dollars in investment flowing into them. Elon Musk claims they will be a trillion-dollar product for Tesla, justifying its high valuation. The idea is that with the advent of artificial intelligence, humanoid robots could use general artificial intelligence to replace humans in an increasing number of tasks.
However, there are serious concerns about this effort, both ethical and technological. Most demonstrations of humanoid robots have relied on remote control by human operators, indicating a gap between software and hardware.
Despite claims that Tesla has conducted “ AI demos ” of Optimus since then, it appears that the company is still relying on remote control to control them during demonstrations. This weekend, Tesla held an event titled ‘ Autonomy Visualized ’ at its Miami store to showcase “ Autopilot technology and Optimus .” However, there was nothing “autonomous” about Tesla’s “autonomy” event.
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Many Tesla fans posted videos of a Tesla Optimus robot handing out water bottles at the event, posing for photos, and dancing. In one video, the robot moved its arms very quickly, causing some water bottles to fall. It then lost its balance and began to fall backwards. Just before it fell, both of its hands went up to its “face” in a characteristic grasping motion, as if it were removing an object from its head, even though the robot was wearing nothing.
This motion is recognizable to anyone who has used VR or watched remote control setups, suggesting that the human operator, likely stationed backstage or in a remote facility, removed their headset while operating the robot. Optimus replicated the motion of removing a non-existent headset as it collapsed to the ground.
This incident is disturbing, not just because the robot fell—robots fall as part of the R&D process—but because the specific move of removing the “imaginary headset” undermines the illusion of autonomy that Tesla is trying to maintain. Musk has previously pushed back against the notion that Tesla relies on remote control for Optimus demonstrations, claiming that a recent demonstration of Optimus doing kung-fu was “AI, not remote controlled.”
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Musk reiterated during Tesla’s last earnings call in October that “ Optimus was at the premiere of Tron doing kung fu , just in the air, with Jared Leto . Nobody was operating it .” He goes on to tell shareholders that Optimus will be the biggest product in history and that millions of units will soon be working in factories. However, if they’re still relying on remote control to hand out water bottles, it seems we’re still a long way from a useful, general-purpose Optimus robot.
