Tesla updates AI-trained robot army, takes new bots for a walk

Tesla has released new footage showcasing its Tesla Bots, which now appear capable of walking steadily, picking up items and recognizing objects. Tesla CEO Elon Musk presented the video at the company’s shareholder meeting event.

The video showcases some notable upgrades to the Tesla Bot project. These include enhanced motor torque control, artificial intelligence (AI) training based on human-tracked movements and object manipulation capabilities. More importantly, the humanoid robots can now walk in a straight line without needing assistance from Tesla staff.

In one demonstration, a Tesla Bot retrieved objects from one container and placed them into another, showing a potential use case for robots doing human-like tasks. This action showed how the bot’s AI can be trained using human demonstrations.

The humanoid robots were first revealed at Tesla AI Day in October 2022. Back then, the robot could barely walk forward, with its insides showing. Another more complete version was also shown, but it needed assistance from the staff to stay standing. 

The initial version of the AI robot was demonstrated at Tesla AI Day 2022. Source: Tesla 

Various internet users reacted to the new footage, with some congratulating the new milestone by Tesla and others threatening to beat the robot up if they saw it in the streets.

Related: ‘Is that legal?’ — Elon Musk chides OpenAI’s for-profit pivot after $50M investment

The new robot demonstration came days after Musk announced he was stepping down as CEO of Twitter. On May 11, Musk said he would become Twitter’s executive chair and chief technology officer, shifting his focus to product, software and system operations.

Musk will be replaced as CEO by Linda Yaccarino. On May 12, the billionaire announced that he is looking forward to working with Yaccarino to transform the platform into “X, the everything app.“

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