Elon Musk reveals humanoid robots will start working in Tesla factories next year and says they’ll be ‘genuinely useful’

TECH billionaire Elon Musk is unleashing humanoid robots into his Telsa factories next year.

The creepy bots will go into “low production” internally before they are made available to other companies in 2026.

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Musk announced development of a humanoid bot in 2021[/caption]

X / @Tesla_Optimus

Musk’s Optimus humanoid bot can already do yoga[/caption]

Musk, 53, tweeted that the walking machines will be “genuinely useful” when deployed to help build Telsa cars.

“Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026,” he said.

The electric car giant has been working on a humanoid robot, known as Optimus, to use in its factories and on production lines.

When Tesla’s humanoid robot was first announced in 2021 during a company event, it did not appear on stage but a person wearing a white outfit and a black helmet walked robotically on before starting to dance.

Since then, Tesla has shown off updated versions of Optimus, including in a video at the end of last year in which the robot picked up, held and put down an egg without breaking it (see a video below).

It’s even been shown doing yoga.

Musk has previously said he hopes Optimus will walk humans into a “future of abundance, a future where there is no poverty, a future where you can have whatever you want in terms of products and services.”

But he’s also cautioned about the development of humanoids, saying they can “basically chase you anywhere”.

“It’s something we should be quite concerned about,” he told the AI Safety Summit last year.

“If a robot can follow you anywhere, what if they get a software update one day, and they’re not so friendly any more?”