Tesla Makes ‘Autonomous’ Robot Look Cooler With Sped-Up Video

Tesla released a caller video aboriginal Thursday showing its much-hyped Optimus robot successful action. Viewers tin ticker Optimus locomotion around, manus retired food, and ascent stairs. But anyone watching astatine location should wage adjacent attraction to the numbers successful the upper-right country of the video. Because that’s wherever you’ll larn however rapidly the video editors are speeding up the footage to marque Optimus look much awesome than it really is.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled a long-anticipated robotaxi last week astatine Warner Bros. studios wherever the Optimus robots really stole the show. Optimus could beryllium seen dancing, talking with guests, and adjacent playing rock-paper-scissors. It wasn’t until aboriginal that radical learned the robots were really being controlled by unseen humans, astatine slightest to immoderate degree.

The full lawsuit led to a batch of questions astir whether Musk was trying to deceive radical by letting them judge Optimus had achieved specified unthinkable feats successful a comparatively abbreviated magnitude of improvement time. That feeling of betrayal has presumably enactment the onus connected Musk to amusement what Optimus tin truly do, similar successful the caller Tesla video posted to X overnight. But this objection volition lone pb to much questions for radical who spot the disclaimer successful the upper-right corner, arsenic we spot the video is sped up 2 times, 8 times, and adjacent 10 times faster astatine points.

Navigating by myself pic.twitter.com/CeFSqCcy5I

— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) October 17, 2024

Did you drawback the small notes successful the precocious corner? They tin beryllium hard to announcement erstwhile you’re trying to ticker the robot. But they service arsenic a bully reminder that Optimus is way behind immoderate of Tesla’s astir important competitors. And it signals that Musk’s promises to present these robots to consumers successful the precise adjacent aboriginal could beryllium overly optimistic.

What does Optimus look similar successful existent time? We slowed down a information of footage to the existent speed, arsenic you tin spot successful this video. And it’s fine, arsenic a functional bipedal robot goes. But it’s noticeably little awesome for the mean idiosyncratic who’s watching astatine location erstwhile they spot the happening moving astatine its existent apical speed.

The video besides shows Optimus climbing stairs, which is admittedly beauteous chill if you cognize astir however hard that was to execute successful the 2000s and aboriginal 2010s. Almost a decennary ago, I attended the DARPA Robotics Challenge successful 2015 and determination were a fig of pupil teams that struggled to get their robots to ascent stairs astatine a decent speed.

But Tesla has surely surpassed the assemblage students of 2015 with this one. At slightest we deliberation Tesla has, fixed the information that, dissimilar the kids competing for DARPA who had to bash it successful beforehand of a unrecorded audience, Optimus conscionable released a video without telling america if this whitethorn person taken much than 1 instrumentality to get right.

You’ll besides announcement that the connection “autonomous,” which had appeared passim astir of the video successful the precocious corner, has vanished erstwhile Optimus is climbing the stairs. It seems harmless to presume Optimus is being controlled by a quality during that information of the video. Tesla didn’t respond to emailed questions connected Thursday.

The “autonomous” statement disappearing successful a caller Tesla Optimus video arsenic the robot climbs stairs. GIF: Tesla / Gizmodo

The video drew mixed reactions, with immoderate radical precise excited by what they were seeing and others who felt duped by the velocity alterations.

“see, adjacent present you person to velocity up video with edits sigh. NOBODY TRUSTS YOU NOW @elonmusk,” 1 X idiosyncratic complained about the video.

Others thought the video looked great, including tech evangelist Robert Scoble, the feline astir celebrated for wearing Google Glass successful the shower. Scoble was, oddly enough, the feline who archetypal flagged the information that Musk’s robots astatine the Cybercab lawsuit weren’t working autonomously.

“Hahah. @elonmusk lets each of america speech for days astir however it isn’t AI past releases this video,” Scoble wrote connected X.

To beryllium clear, Scoble thinks the video is awesome and seemingly a existent objection of AI, contempt not really demonstrating thing cutting borderline that tin beryllium honestly verified. But others connected X were confused astir Scobles wording, conscionable arsenic we were.

“I don’t get it, truthful Optimus was really autonomous erstwhile it handed implicit worldly during the lawsuit aft all? I thought radical and engineers said it was tele-prompted?” different idiosyncratic asked Scoble.

“No. It was quality controlled overmuch of the time,” Scoble replied. “They were moving connected a abstracted build. The 1 for the demo was constricted to debar mistakes. But present I’m wondering if much than I thought was AI, similar the pouring of the drink.”

A human-assisted Tesla robot known arsenic Optimus pouring drinks astatine an lawsuit Oct. 10, 2024 astatine Warner Bros. successful Burbank, California. (Screenshot from a video by Robert Scoble)

Tesla ne'er did get backmost to Gizmodo erstwhile we emailed questions astir conscionable however autonomous the robots astatine the “We, Robot” lawsuit were. But the caller video doesn’t really amusement anyone getting poured a portion either. The Optimus conscionable hands radical a vessel beverage and we inactive don’t cognize however overmuch quality enactment is progressive successful this process. We conscionable person to instrumentality Tesla’s connection that it’s AI and “autonomous.”

There’s besides the tether attached to Optimus successful the video which is ne'er explained, which we’ve circled successful yellowish below. The robot bartenders astatine the Tesla Cybercab lawsuit didn’t person immoderate disposable tethers.

Screenshot: Tesla / X

Musk has a agelong past of trying to marque his projects look overmuch much awesome than they really are. Back successful January, Musk tweeted a video of Optimus folding a shirt. But the objection accidentally revealed determination was a idiosyncratic just-off camera who was remotely operating the robot. You could spot the human’s manus dip into framework sometimes, arsenic we’ve highlighted with the reddish arrow successful the GIF below.

Tesla’s robot competitors started adding the words “no teleoperation” to their videos successful the months aft Musk’s effort astatine pulling the wool implicit people’s eyes.

The billionaire Tesla CEO isn’t the archetypal idiosyncratic to fudge robot demos either. Back successful the 1950s, the U.S. quality assemblage helped enactment connected a robot objection for the Soviet Union during a tech just successful Moscow. The Soviet onlookers were told that a robot vacuum was moving autonomously and the presumption tried to suggest that the mean U.S. household would soon person these kinds of things. In reality, determination was a feline sitting down a two-way reflector with a remote control.

Some things ne'er truly change.