The Future of Robotics: Tesla Bot’s Impact on Automation

This isn’t a drill.
This is real. It just happened.
And when you hear that, a lot of things might run through your mind. Let’s break it down.

The two main questions that probably popped into your head, just like mine, are:

Why Tesla, of all companies?
Why a human-like robot, of all things?
And, for that matter—what exactly is Tesla?
Now, if you think about it from a certain angle, it actually starts to make sense. But to get there, we need to break a few things down. So, let’s do that.

Tesla: More Than Just a Car Company
At the surface, Tesla is a car company. I’ve reviewed their cars, seen their factory tours, and followed their major announcements. But let’s call it what it really is: a “vehicle company.” Sure, they’re known for cars—electric ones, at that—but they’ve expanded beyond just that.

If you limit yourself to thinking about Tesla as just a car company, you’re missing the bigger picture. A lot of people, myself included, think of Tesla more as a software company, because their real strength lies in how they integrate software into their vehicles. The software they use—especially in things like their self-driving tech—is arguably the company’s biggest edge. Tesla is a software company that makes electric cars.

Now, compare them to the likes of Mercedes, Audi, or BMW. I wouldn’t call those companies software-driven at all, but for Tesla, software is the heart of their innovation.

Self-Driving: Tesla’s Secret Weapon
A big part of that software focus is Tesla’s self-driving tech.

Sure, there’s been plenty of buzz, missed deadlines, and promises that didn’t quite come to fruition. But here’s the thing: as it stands today, Tesla’s self-driving system is one of the most advanced out there. And it’s not because of ultra-detailed maps or pre-programmed routes. What makes Tesla’s approach unique is how they rely on their sensors—mostly cameras—to constantly scan their environment. They’re making thousands of tiny, real-time decisions as they drive, without human input.

And it gets even better: every mile driven with Autopilot engaged is fed back into Tesla’s servers, constantly improving the system not just for one car, but for the entire fleet. So, as more Teslas hit the road, the system gets smarter, faster.

This doesn’t happen without some serious computing power and top-notch code. And that’s where Tesla excels.

AI Day: A Glimpse Into the Future
A few days ago, Tesla held their annual AI Day. You may not have heard much about it, but it’s a big deal for those in the know. They livestream a series of talks from Tesla engineers, diving deep into the company’s work on computer vision and how their neural networks are evolving. They talk about their focus on autonomous driving and how they’re building a synthetic “visual cortex” for their cars. It’s high-level stuff—complex, informative, and full of breakthroughs that give you a real sense of where Tesla is headed.

At the end of the day, Tesla is more than just a car company—they’re a tech company, pushing boundaries in software, artificial intelligence, and data in ways that other automakers just aren’t. So when you hear about their latest advancements, it starts to make sense why they’re leading the charge into the future of transportation.

At this year’s AI Day, Tesla revealed their new custom D1 chip—something they’ve designed and built entirely in-house. It’s a chip aimed at speeding up the training of Tesla’s full self-driving algorithms using driving footage. Basically, they’re planning to replace all the GPUs they’re currently using to power their supercomputer for computer vision and machine learning. It’s a pretty big deal.

At one point during the event, Elon got on stage and said something like:

“Tesla is basically the world’s biggest robotics company, because our cars are, like I said, semi-sentient robots on wheels.”

When you think about it, there’s some truth to that. Of course, Tesla is still a car company at the core, but when they’re presenting at AI Day—trying to show off their tech and recruit talent—they’re framing their cars as robots. And in a way, they are. Tesla’s self-driving cars are, after all, a type of robot on wheels.

It makes sense when you break it down. Self-driving cars are just one example of how AI, computer vision, and robotics come together to solve a problem. In this case, that problem is getting a car to drive itself.

The car constantly scans its surroundings, makes decisions based on what it sees, and then learns from the outcomes to improve over time. That’s what’s happening with self-driving cars.

So far, so good. I get it.

Then, right after this, Elon said:

“It kind of makes sense to put that onto a humanoid form.”

And that’s where I start to disagree.

Tesla Bot: The New Humanoid Robot
Tesla has unveiled its much-anticipated humanoid robot, the Tesla Bot. This sleek, black-and-white robot stands at 5’8″ and weighs 125 pounds. It has a face mask with a screen, ten fingers, and feet—but no toes. While it can move at a maximum speed of 5 miles per hour (so don’t worry about being outrun), it’s also capable of lifting up to 10 pounds with its arms extended or deadlifting 150 pounds.

Packed with sensors, cameras, and actuators, the Tesla Bot is powered by the same full self-driving computer that powers Tesla cars. Despite its futuristic look, the company makes it clear that the bot is intentionally slow and not built for physical dominance—so it should be easy to overpower if necessary, which Tesla emphasizes as a safety feature.

The main purpose of the Tesla Bot, as repeatedly stressed by the company during its reveal, is to take on repetitive, dangerous, or boring tasks—freeing humans from the more mundane aspects of work.

A Humanlike Robot—But Why?
When you look at Tesla as a robotics company, the Tesla Bot makes sense. It’s another machine that uses sensors to scan its environment, make decisions, and navigate the world—much like Tesla’s autonomous cars.

But here’s the thing (and keep in mind I’m no robotics engineer): the human form isn’t the most efficient design for a robot. Don’t get me wrong, humans are remarkable—we’ve done a lot of amazing things, and our bodies are pretty good at adapting to the world we’ve built around us. The problem is that the way our bodies are structured isn’t the most efficient for many tasks, especially when it comes to robots.

I recently did an episode on humanoid robots for Retrotech, and we dug into this with experts. It turns out that when designing a robot to handle a specific task, you generally don’t want to model it after a human. Instead, the goal should be to create a robot that’s highly specialized and efficient at that single task.

Humans are great at what we do, but our bipedal, upright bodies require constant balancing and coordination. This makes us less efficient when it comes to certain types of work. So, for robots that need to take over specific jobs, it’s better to focus on optimizing them for those jobs—rather than building something that looks and moves like us.

Pop culture has always been obsessed with humanoid robots. Seriously, there’s no shortage of movies and TV shows where we see robots shaped like humans, and the fascination with them goes way back. It’s something we’ve been intrigued by for a long time.

But here’s the thing: when it comes to everyday tasks, it turns out the best way to build a robot isn’t to give it a human shape. Take vacuuming, for example. The ideal robot for that job isn’t one that looks like a person and pushes a vacuum around. It’s the vacuum itself that’s the robot. You want the vacuum to do the work, not a humanoid robot standing there pushing it. Same with washing dishes. You don’t need a human-shaped robot standing at the sink; the dishwasher itself is the robot. It’s purpose-built for the task.

Tesla gets this. You don’t need a humanoid robot inside your car driving it. The car is the robot. The self-driving car is already here, doing the job.

So, when you think about the tasks where a human-shaped robot would actually be useful, the list gets pretty short. Most labor isn’t designed around the human form, after all.

One example that kept coming up in their AI Day presentation was grocery shopping. You walk into a store, grab a cart, pick out your items, and put them in the cart. Maybe a humanoid robot could handle this, but honestly, it seems like a job that needs a lot of different tools and peripherals. I can’t think of many other things a humanoid robot would do better than a specialized machine.

Even for simpler tasks—like making a bed or building a table—I don’t imagine a human-shaped robot would be ideal. I’d picture a machine that’s highly specialized and focused on getting the job done quickly and efficiently. Not one that looks like a person, but one designed specifically for the task at hand.

Elon’s Insight

I might be looking at this too simply, but I remember a conversation I had with Elon a few years ago at the factory. We were talking about how much of their work is automated versus what still requires humans, and his answer really stuck with me.

He said, “Some parts are like 80-90% automated, but there are other parts that are still only about 10-20% automated.”

I asked him, “So what are the parts that humans are still better at doing?”

He explained, “Humans are really good at adapting quickly, especially for delicate tasks. Like when you’re trying to connect a hose that’s just hanging around.”

I paused, “Okay, so the robot would have to find the hose, grab it, and hook it up to another hose?”

“Exactly,” Elon said. “But it’s tough for a robot. A person can just look at the situation and get it done right away. But a robot? It might grab the wrong thing, or miss entirely, or try to grab nothing at all, and end up smashing into the car.”

We both laughed about that.

“Yeah, you don’t want that happening,” I said.

“It’s more of a comedy of errors—more tragic than funny, though,” Elon added with a grin.

That conversation got me thinking. With how advanced Tesla’s self-driving tech is, why would we need humanoid robots trying to do things that humans already do so well? How long is it going to take for a robot to get good at those tasks?

I guess the best way to answer that question is to look at the most advanced robotics company I can think of right now—Boston Dynamics.

There are two very different types of humanoid robots out there.

On one side, you’ve got the basic, single-purpose robots you see at CES. These are usually the cheesy, human-shaped robots that don’t really do much and definitely don’t look all that impressive. They do a few things okay, but that’s about it.

On the other side, you’ve got Boston Dynamics’ Atlas. I really wish I could’ve seen Atlas in person when I was out there, because even their dog robot, Spot, is incredible. Spot has sensors, it can understand its environment, and it can do dangerous or repetitive tasks in places that would be too risky or boring for humans. They call it Spot because, well, it’s kind of dog-like—especially if you program it to move a certain way.

But honestly, Spot is just a four-legged robot. Any four-legged animal could do the same thing.

Atlas, though, is something else. I haven’t seen it do anything truly practical yet, but watching a five-foot-tall humanoid robot move through the world in such fluid, crazy ways is seriously impressive. It’s a whole new level of what robots can do, even if we’re still a ways off from making them as useful as we might hope.

I recently shared a new video of Atlas doing parkour, and even Elon seemed pretty impressed by it. But here’s the thing: after all these years of development, Atlas still isn’t a robot you’re going to see on sale anytime soon. If you ask Boston Dynamics, they’ll tell you it’s more about experimenting with computing in a new form.

Now, as for the Tesla Bot, I don’t think it’s going to hit the market anytime soon either. Sure, they’ve mentioned a prototype might be ready next year, but I really doubt Tesla’s going to leapfrog Boston Dynamics in just two years.

Even if they do come out with the Bot, let’s remember: Tesla’s self-driving tech is powered by billions of miles of real-world data collected from actual cars driving on the streets. That’s how they get the data they need—by putting cars out in the world and letting people use them. It’s honestly pretty genius.

But now, imagine asking a humanoid robot to go out and navigate all of the real world. On the roads, Tesla’s cars can identify other vehicles, pedestrians, traffic signs, and road markings. That’s pretty much the bulk of it. But what happens when you ask the Tesla Bot to do something like go to the store and grab bananas? Can it figure that out?

Or if you ask it to go downstairs and grab your AirPods Max—will it even know what those are? Does it need to have a database of every new product that comes out in order to recognize what you’re asking for? There’s a lot of complexity to that.

And all of this data collection would have to come from real-world experiences, too, which probably means people would have to use Tesla Bots in their homes. But that feels a lot less likely to me than people getting into self-driving cars.

Then, there’s the whole unknown side of this robot. What colors will it come in? Matte black, maybe? How does it charge—does it just sit on a USB dock somewhere in your house? And honestly, will this thing ever be available for sale to the public?

I don’t really think the goal is to sell a humanoid robot anytime soon. I think Tesla’s main aim is to push the boundaries of computer vision and AI, much like Boston Dynamics is doing. The Tesla Bot is probably just another way for them to keep improving in that area.

At the end of the day, I don’t see a real reason for a humanoid robot to be in people’s homes anytime soon. But hey, it makes for great headlines. People have been fascinated by robots forever, and we’ll continue to be for a long time.

And let’s be real—when has Tesla ever passed up a good PR opportunity? This is just one more way for them to grab attention and keep pushing their tech forward.

So, those are my thoughts. I’m really curious to hear what you think—would you want a Tesla Bot in your home? Do you think it’ll even happen? Drop your thoughts in the comments!