Why will Optimus be Tesla's biggest product?

How the answer evolved · oldest first

1. Jul 27, 2025 · X Takeover · asked by Interviewer

   Q: What's the roadmap from where we are today to widespread deployment?

   Again, you're really asking me for questions that are highly sensitive to the value of the company. And so that's not really something I can answer. All right. The current version three of Optionbus, I think, is the right design to go to volume production, but it is a significant redesign from version 2. So, in fact, almost nothing stays the same. So I'm really faced with a choice of should we make several thousand …

   Watch at 0:20:51 ↗Transcript ↗Timestamp from archive, not cross-checked

2. Jul 27, 2025 · X Takeover · asked by Interviewer

   Q: Not necessarily timeline but like where do you see Optimus having the biggest impact?

   Well, initially would go to very high value things. So say somebody needs a lot of medical care or something. So like if you know options could be like a 24 hour a day nurse or helper to someone that is quadriplegic or something like that or something just really is. It needs physical help. So that's the kind of thing which would be life changing for a lot of people. Those would be the highest value initial use …

   Watch at 0:24:28 ↗Transcript ↗Timestamp from archive, not cross-checked

3. Jul 27, 2025 · X Takeover · asked by Interviewer

   Q: And it sounds like obviously the hand is the big one of the biggest problems, but are there other parts of the body too, that would continue to help infer other parts of the humanoid robot?

   Well, with Optimus, we're able to reuse the autopilot computer. So Optimus is intelligence, is powered by the AI4. You're the same computer that controls the car and a small battery pack that's similar to the car battery pack. So there's lots of carries with the car. And then the AI that's in the car is A. Similar to the AI that will be Optimus running AI for hardware and then AI 5 hardware when that's ready. So …

   Watch at 0:53:39 ↗Transcript ↗Timestamp from archive, not cross-checked

4. Jan 28, 2026 · Tesla Q4 and full year 2025 earnings call · asked by Travis Axelrod

   Q: What specific roles or operations are they handling and how has their integration impacted factory efficiency or output?

   Yeah, we're still very much at the early stages of Optimus. It's an R D still in the R D phase. So we have had Optimus do some basic tasks in the factory, but as we iterate on new versions of Optimus, we deprecate the old versions. And so I wouldn't say it's like it's not in usage and our factories in a material way. It's more so that the robot can learn. We wouldn't expect to have

   Watch at 0:37:09 ↗Transcript ↗Timestamp from archive, not cross-checked

5. Feb 5, 2026 · Dwarkesh Podcast · asked by Dwarkesh Patel

   Q: Like what do you think is going like, what allows it, what allows him to sell for solo? And can we match that?

   Well, Optimus, our Optimus is designed to have a lot of intelligence and to have the same electromechanical dexterity, if not higher than a human. So does not have that. And it's also, I mean, it's quite a big robot. It has to do carry heavy objects for long periods of time and not overheat or exceed the power of its actuators. So. So we've got it's 511 so it's pretty tall and it's got a lot of intelligence. So it's …

   Watch at 1:28:18 ↗Transcript ↗Timestamp cross-checked

In his own posts on X

• @elonmusk · Feb 4, 2026

  @imPenny2x Optimus will be the biggest product ever

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