Featured Image Credit: Tesla
Tesla's Optimus robots have seemingly taken things to the next level, as recent videos capture what many are calling the most human-like action they've ever seen from a robot.
Elon Musk's Tesla are known for their technological innovations, and while not every experiment emerges a complete success, they have done enough to become one of the most valuable companies in the entire world.
After being initially announced back in 2021 at Tesla's Artificial Intelligence Day, the Tesla Bot - now known as Optimus - seemed like a distant dream, although this year has shown that it's perhaps more real than many might have expected.
While their unveiling hasn't been without some odd occurrences, as many have been freaked out by Optimus' voice and creepy confessions, recent footage of the robot has left people in awe at it's unprecedented human-like behavior.
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Daily walks help clear your mind pic.twitter.com/dUsW58trS6
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) December 9, 2024
Shared in a post on X (formerly Twitter) by the Tesla Optimus account, we are able to see footage of the robot walking up and down muddy sloped terrain - which would previously prove difficult for an 'automated' robot.
This is, of course, incredibly impressive - but surprisingly what has amazed most viewers are the 'faults' that Optimus is still vulnerable to.
You can see near the end of the video that upon slowly trotting down a short slope the robot's foot slips, and it does a eerily human-like wobble, even going so far to brace its arms for impact on the floor.
This specific incident was spread by Tesla expert Nic Cruz Patane on X, and the replies are unanimous in their astonishment at the robot's actions.
"The arms swinging to regain balance is exactly what a human would do," points out on user, whereas another remarks that "if that were me I would have sprained an ankle and been bed ridden for weeks."
Perhaps the robots really are superior to us all already.
What remains even more staggering is that Optimus Engineer Milan Kovac revealed that the Tesla robots are actually blind, in that they have no video capabilities to guide it in motion.
Tesla is where real-world AI is happening.
— Milan Kovac (@_milankovac_) December 9, 2024
These runs are on mulched ground, where I’ve myself slipped before. What’s really crazy here is that for these, Optimus is actually blind! Keeping its balance without video (yet), only other on-board sensors consumed by a neural net… https://t.co/T2DHeWrCew
Kovac reveals that Optimus is able to walk by using "only other on-board sensors consumed by a neural net running in ~2-3ms on its embedded computer."
There are current plans to add 'Vision' in the future to allow the robot to better plan ahead when walking, alongside enhancements that improve its gait, and also minimize damage when it does inevitably fall.
This proves that perhaps the things that fascinate us most about robots though are the faults that we share, as opposed to the enhancements that they have over humans.
Perhaps robots have already calculated this though, and have built in a few slips and tumbles to make themselves endearing before taking over Earth. Or maybe they're just as clumsy as us - certainly food for thought.
