{"id":34193,"date":"2021-08-20T20:16:20","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T14:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/elon-musks-new-tesla-bot-definitely-isnt-a-real-thing\/"},"modified":"2021-08-20T20:22:59","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T14:52:59","slug":"elon-musks-new-tesla-bot-definitely-isnt-a-real-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/elon-musks-new-tesla-bot-definitely-isnt-a-real-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk&#8217;s New Tesla Bot Definitely isn&#8217;t a Real Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Elon Musk loves nothing more than to publicly promote a product that either doesn\u2019t exist, or doesn\u2019t work. His latest example is the Tesla Bot. Announced on Thursday, this humanoid robot is supposedly designed to perform \u201cboring, repetitious and dangerous\u201d work, fulfilling sci-fi predictions about androids replacing the human workforce. But despite the hype that arrives with any new Musk-related announcement, the Tesla Bot isn\u2019t a viable product.<\/p>\n<p>Musk <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2021\/aug\/20\/humanoid-tesla-bot-likely-to-launch-next-year-says-elon-musk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">presented his plans<\/a> for the Tesla Bot at a tech event named AI Day, saying, \u201cWe\u2019ll probably have a prototype next year,\u201d while speculating that the robot might have \u201cprofound implications for the economy.\u201d The presentation was accompanied by a performer wearing a skin-tight bodysuit, illustrating what the hypothetical robot will allegedly look like:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Elon Musk REVEALS Tesla Bot (full presentation)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HUP6Z5voiS8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>On social media, people were quick to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/capnyuji\/status\/1428553655863504896\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">crack jokes<\/a> about the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/alessandro_r23\/status\/1428561497718808579\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">impending robot apocalypse<\/a> and speculate about the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/heydave7\/status\/1428582873758527491\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">groundbreaking nature<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/APompliano\/status\/1428553404893339650\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tesla Bot technology<\/a>. As is always the case with Musk\u2019s announcements, his words were accepted at face value by many commentators. But while the Tesla Bot sounds cool, there\u2019s no evidence that this technology will be ready for that prototype date next year.<\/p>\n<p>On Tesla\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tesla.com\/AI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Artificial Intelligence page<\/a>, the Tesla Bot is described in a single paragraph recruiting engineers to work on the project, accompanied by concept art of the robot. Meanwhile, the initial announcement described a humanoid robot in terms that don\u2019t sound plausible for recent technological developments. The images show a smooth humanoid body with a carrying capacity of 45lbs, a speed of 5mph, and a \u201cfriendly\u201d demeanor. It will supposedly have \u201chuman level hands.\u201d In other words, it should be able to walk, pick things up and perform basic physical tasks like a human, while also <em>looking<\/em> like a human.<\/p>\n<p>Humanoid robots are a fascinating concept, and various projects are currently approaching the problem from different angles. Some robots like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/a-freaky-humanoid-robot-that-sweats-as-it-does-push-ups\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kengoro<\/a> attempt to replicate human joints and musculature. Others focus on mimicking social interaction, like the <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Technology\/human-robot-nadine-personality-mood-emotions-unveiled-singapore\/story?id=36032196\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">social robot Nadine<\/a>. And Boston Dynamics is famous for its viral videos depicting humanoid and animalistic robots performing stunts. But none of these robots are as efficient or flexible as a human body, and they\u2019re not commercially viable on a widespread scale.<\/p>\n<p>When we talk about automation replacing human labor, the relevant technology bears little resemblance to something like the Tesla Bot. Supermarket checkout machines replace retail workers. Robo-calls and chatbots replace customer service workers. Some parts of the manufacturing industry have already been automated for decades, like car factories where robotics play a major role. But all of these \u201crobots\u201d are designed to perform specific tasks, whereas Elon Musk\u2019s Tesla Bot (which, once again, doesn\u2019t exist) will supposedly mimic the abilities of a full human body. If Tesla can\u2019t even deliver the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/8\/8\/22615539\/tesla-cybertruck-production-delayed-2022-elon-musk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cybertruck<\/a> on time, then why should people trust in a pie-in-the-sky announcement like this one?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elon Musk loves nothing more than to publicly promote a product that either doesn\u2019t exist, or doesn\u2019t work. His latest example is the Tesla Bot. &#8230; <a title=\"Elon Musk&#8217;s New Tesla Bot Definitely isn&#8217;t a Real Thing\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/elon-musks-new-tesla-bot-definitely-isnt-a-real-thing\/\" aria-label=\"More on Elon Musk&#8217;s New Tesla Bot Definitely isn&#8217;t a Real Thing\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":34194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/districtchronicles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}