7 ms·

Tesla Announces Humanoid Robot “Tesla Bot”

11 points by doctoboggan 5y ago

JoeAltmaier 5y ago
A picture of a person with a circuit board inside? That's what they have?
- sidibe 5y ago
  The presentation was hilarious. He didn't even know what to say about it, just threw the slide up and a little dancing human in a robot outfit. Just another distraction I think they threw into the agenda at the last minute. Won't be the first vaporware at these Tesla media days (has anything presented at these ever happened?)
protomikron 5y ago
So ... maybe they don't want to go for LIDAR (in their cars), because they wanted to build a humanoid robot anyway and felt that a LIDAR on a mobile platform's head is infeasible (?) - so they skipped the sensor fusion problem, and want to solve the harder problem first. ... and maybe go back to LIDAR later? Just guess work.
- ilaksh 5y ago
  They didn't want LIDAR because it would srick out the car and then Tesla would go from the sexiest car to the dorkiest.
WheelsAtLarge 5y ago
We'll see a model 5 years from now but you've got to give it to the guy. He certainly knows how to promote a company. P.T. Barnum would be proud.
sterlind 5y ago
this just.. makes no sense. this doesn't play to Tesla's strengths or synergize with their existing R&D. Sensors for proprioceptive feedback are still immature, reinforcement learning for robotic motion is still in its infancy (Boston Dynamics did it the old fashioned way with differential equations and tons of work.) ...and you don't need any of that for cars, even with Autopilot. Turning steering wheels and accelerating is trivial compared to walking. Computer vision, sure, maybe, but that's a lot closer to solved than controlling a humanoid robot.
- boublepop 5y ago
  It plays exactly to Tesla’s strengths. It’s a completely unrelated futuristic area that can be used to raise a lot of funds and act as justification for an incredibly out of touch with reality evaluation of the company. Also, all of the problems you mention are easily solved by putting Elon on a stage to tell potential investors that they’re already solved. Just like Tesla’s self driving system on the market now.
  - comfysocks 5y ago
    I think the humanoid aspect helps lay-people (and hedge fund managers) stay confused as to what the current scope of AI is. When people see humanoids, they think AGI, not DNNs.
- tim333 5y ago
  Someone / something has to build the cities on Mars.
  - sterlind 5y ago
    no reason for that to be a humanoid. I'd be extremely surprised if construction robots looked humanoid.

11 points by doctoboggan 5y ago

JoeAltmaier 5y ago

A picture of a person with a circuit board inside? That's what they have?

sidibe 5y ago
The presentation was hilarious. He didn't even know what to say about it, just threw the slide up and a little dancing human in a robot outfit. Just another distraction I think they threw into the agenda at the last minute. Won't be the first vaporware at these Tesla media days (has anything presented at these ever happened?)

protomikron 5y ago

So ... maybe they don't want to go for LIDAR (in their cars), because they wanted to build a humanoid robot anyway and felt that a LIDAR on a mobile platform's head is infeasible (?) - so they skipped the sensor fusion problem, and want to solve the harder problem first. ... and maybe go back to LIDAR later? Just guess work.

ilaksh 5y ago
They didn't want LIDAR because it would srick out the car and then Tesla would go from the sexiest car to the dorkiest.

WheelsAtLarge 5y ago

We'll see a model 5 years from now but you've got to give it to the guy. He certainly knows how to promote a company. P.T. Barnum would be proud.

sterlind 5y ago

this just.. makes no sense. this doesn't play to Tesla's strengths or synergize with their existing R&D. Sensors for proprioceptive feedback are still immature, reinforcement learning for robotic motion is still in its infancy (Boston Dynamics did it the old fashioned way with differential equations and tons of work.) ...and you don't need any of that for cars, even with Autopilot. Turning steering wheels and accelerating is trivial compared to walking. Computer vision, sure, maybe, but that's a lot closer to solved than controlling a humanoid robot.

boublepop 5y ago
It plays exactly to Tesla’s strengths. It’s a completely unrelated futuristic area that can be used to raise a lot of funds and act as justification for an incredibly out of touch with reality evaluation of the company. Also, all of the problems you mention are easily solved by putting Elon on a stage to tell potential investors that they’re already solved. Just like Tesla’s self driving system on the market now.
- comfysocks 5y ago
  I think the humanoid aspect helps lay-people (and hedge fund managers) stay confused as to what the current scope of AI is. When people see humanoids, they think AGI, not DNNs.
tim333 5y ago
Someone / something has to build the cities on Mars.
- sterlind 5y ago
  no reason for that to be a humanoid. I'd be extremely surprised if construction robots looked humanoid.