Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, recently announced that production of the highly anticipated Optimus 3 humanoid robot could commence as early as this summer. Musk shared this exciting update during his interview at the Abundance Summit, revealing that Tesla is in the final stages of completing Optimus 3, which he hailed as one of the most advanced robots in the world.
Describing the capabilities of Optimus 3, Musk stated, “We’re in the final stages of completion of Optimus 3, which is really going to be by far the most advanced robot in the world. Nothing’s even close. In fact, I haven’t even seen demos of robots that are as good as Optimus 3.”
Setting expectations for the production ramp of Optimus 3, Musk mentioned that initial volumes of the humanoid robot might be limited initially. However, he expressed confidence that high production rates for Optimus 3 could be achieved by 2027.
On the timeline for production, Musk mentioned, “I think we’ll start production on Optimus 3 this summer, but very slow at first, like sort of this classic S-curve ramp of manufacturing units versus time. And then, probably reach high volume production around summer next year.”
Interestingly, Musk hinted at Tesla’s ambitious plans to iterate on the robot quickly, with a new Optimus design potentially being released every year. He mentioned, “We’ll have Optimus 4 design complete next year. We’ll try to release a new robot design every year.”
With broader plans for scaling Optimus production, Tesla aims to establish initial production lines for the robot at its Fremont Factory, capable of producing up to 1 million robots per year. A larger production ramp is expected at Gigafactory Texas, with Musk envisioning production levels of up to 10 million robots per year.
Musk’s vision for the future of Optimus production is ambitious, with plans to launch the fastest production ramp of any large complex manufactured product ever. While Optimus 3 may kick off production at Fremont, Tesla’s grander manufacturing push could come to fruition with Optimus 4 at Gigafactory Texas.