Category Archives: Elon Musk

John Kraus/Netflix

Any current review of Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space is inherently incomplete, since the five-part Netflix docuseries is aiming to debut in real time alongside the event its depicting: the Sept. 15 launch of SpaceXs Inspiration4, which will be the first all-civilian flight to orbit the Eartha feat itll accomplish three times during its three-day journey, at speeds of 1,750 mph and at a height greater than that of the International Space Station. Consequently, the only episodes available to press at the moment are its first two prologue installments (premiering Sept. 6); chapters three and four will hit the streaming service on Sept. 13, and a feature-length finaledetailing the actual missionis set to land in late September, shortly after the Inspiration4 touches back down on Earth.

Those concluding segments will no doubt deliver up-close-and-personal footage from inside the Inspiration4 Crew Dragon capsule that will house its four amateur astronauts, who will be launched into space via a previously used Falcon 9 rocket. In its maiden passages, however, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space is basically a long-winded promotional video crafted to stoke excitementand offer justificationsfor the endeavor, which just about everyone here touts as a history-making project that will help us get closer to answering the most profound questions about existence and serve as the first step in mankinds quest to become a multi-planetary species. Its an aggressive sales pitch masquerading as a typical Netflix non-fiction venture, helmed by The Last Dances Jason Hehir with all the dewy-eyed melodrama, swelling music, and rousing headshots that a 45-minute episode can contain.

Dune Is an Absolute Marveland the Best Sci-Fi Film in Years

Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space insistently pushes its message from the get-go. According to Times chief science editor Jeffrey Kluger, Inspiration4 is a hinge point in history, and will kick the doors open to space for the rest of us. Thats because, by sending non-professional astronauts into space, the undertaking will pave the way for more commercial flights, as well as further the goal of reaching deeper into the cosmos, where we might someday colonize distant worlds. This is a goal of dubious worth, but its one that Hehirs docuseries champions with a chin-held-high sort of confidence. At the same time, it also has SpaceX founder Elon Musk address the main criticism of the Inspiration4 flight, and similar ones recently spearheaded by Richard Branson and Jeff Bezosnamely, that these are joy-ride stunts designed to feed the egos of billionaires.

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I think we should spend the vast majority of our resources solving problems on Earth. Like, 99 percent-plus of our economy should be dedicated to solving problems on Earth, says Musk in one of his few obligatory on-screen appearances. But I think maybe something like 1 percent, or less than 1 percent, could be applied to extending life beyond Earth. His motivation is colonizing Mars, and the exciting, inspiring future of multi-planetary habitation. After all, he proclaims, If life is just about problems, whats the point of living? In this context, Inspiration4 isnt just an expensive lark; its the next big pioneering phase in mankinds evolution, and thus deserving of the private investment required to make its Jetsons-style dreams a reality.

Musks brief comments aside, however, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space does very little to take a critical look at this enterprise. At least in its initial pair of installments, the docuseries plays like a PR product, casting everything in glowing terms, including its portraits of the missions four astronauts. That group is led by Jared Isaacman, a billionaire whose history of entrepreneurship, risk-taking and fighter jet-piloting made him the ideal driving force behind Inspiration4. Isaacman is an amiable and eloquent guy whose every comment is tailor-made to hit on a particular talking point and, as he explains, a guiding motivation behind his SpaceX relationship was an initiative he developed with St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital to raise $200 million for cancer research. Putting his money where his mouth is, hes already given his own, separate $100 million donation to the organization.

St. Jude also provided Inspiration4 with two of its passengers: Hayley Arceneaux, a pediatric cancer survivor and current St. Jude physicians assistant, and Christopher Sembroski, who won his ride by entering into a raffle promoted by SpaceXs Super Bowl commercial. The fourth crew member is Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old entrepreneur (whod previously trained for space flight) who earned her spot through a viral-video competition. Together, as Isaacman explains, they represent the four pillars of the Inspiration4 mission: Leadership (Isaacman), Hope (Arceneaux), Generosity (Sembroski), and Prosperity (Proctor). This is as cheesy as it sounds, like something produced for a marketing brochure and a press release. And though all four of these individuals seem genuinely thrilled about their opportunity, the docuseries vignettes on their backstories are as cornily handled as the scenes in which they announce to friends (in person, and via Zoom) that theyre going to spacemoments that awkwardly strain for astonishment and euphoria.

One can imagine Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Spaces more timely later episodes supplying greater suspense. Yet in its early goingwhich involves repeatedly underlining SpaceXs connection to the history and ethos of the American space programthe entire affair mostly comes across as prepackaged corporate publicity. Some authentic emotion does occasionally sneak in, as with a brief snapshot of Sembroskis wife breaking down in nervous tears while visiting SpaceXs Cape Canaveral HQ to watch the Crew-2 flight take off in April 2021. Yet even the shows discussion about the dangers of space travelreplete with recaps of the 1986 and 2003 space shuttle disastersseem less interested in grappling with the cost/benefit of these missions than in raising the proceedings suspenseful dramatic stakes.

Those hazards are, of course, real, and theyll certainly be front-and-center as Inspiration4 makes its way from the planning stages to the launchpad. The notion that Netflix viewers will get a front-row seat for this journeybe it a triumph or a failureremains an intriguing prospect. Yet one hopes that, as its subjects enter orbit, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space quiets down about its own importance, and lets its action speak for itself.

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Netflix Strokes Elon Musks Otherworldly Ego With Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space - Yahoo! Voices

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Things are getting more complicated for electric vehicle leader Tesla.

The company is balancing the addition of new models, new capacity, and new employeesall during a pandemic and semiconductor shortage that is constraining global auto production. The rising complexity might be why CEO Elon Musk wanted to chat with employees.

Musk held an all-hands meeting that all Tesla (ticker: TSLA) employees could dial into, according to reports. Tesla didnt respond to a request for comment.

There was good news and bad news for investors.

The bad news is that the Cybertruck is facing delays. Investors already knew delivery of Teslas light-duty pickup had slipped from 2021 into 2022. Now it looks as if production in volume wont come before 2023.

That puts Tesla behind Ford Motor (F), Rivian, and potentially General Motors (GM) in the race to launch an all-electric truck at a scale of tens of thousands of units a year.

On the positive side, 2023 also appears to be the year Tesla plans to launch a smaller model costing about $25,000. Musk and Tesla management have talked about a lower-cost model for months. That is good for the company because it will dramatically expand the market Tesla can address.

A Tesla Model 3 Sedan starts at about $40,000 in the U.S. today. Its still a higher-end sedan, costing about $60,000 in certain configurations.

To date, few details have emerged about the small model. Now analysts and investors will start to put 2023 into their financial models.

The key to selling a low-cost EV, of course, is getting battery costs down. Tesla has managed to raise its gross profit per car sold from about $11,000 to almost $15,000 over the past two years. That happened while average selling prices dropped from about $56,000 to $51,000 per car.

There was talk of a robo-van, too, but details were thin. That might be a self- driving vehicle far in the future, but Tesla also could have designs on the commercial vehicle market down the road. Ford Motor (F) plans to offer an electric version of its Transit van. EV trucking start-up Rivian also has a commercial vehicle planned. EVs make a lot of sense for fleets. They can be charged centrally at night, a daily route rarely exceeds one battery charge, and EVs are cheaper to maintain that traditional vehicles.

Musk also told employees that September would be a busy month for deliveries, Tesla typically delivers most of its cars in the final month of a quarter.

Tesla delivered more than 200,000 vehicles in the second quarter. Analysts are projecting about 224,000 vehicles to be delivered in the third quarter. The global chip shortage, however, will make quarterly production and deliveries a little more exciting than usual.

Tesla stock isnt doing much in response to the mix of news. Shares closed up about 0.2% Friday. The S&P 500 closed just down and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite home to many richly valued tech stocks like Teslarose 0.2%, like Tesla stock.

So far in 2021, Tesla shares are up about 4% year to date, trailing behind the 21% comparable gain of the S&P 500. Still, Tesla stock is up about 80% over the past 12 months and rose 743% in 2020.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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Elon Musk Hosted a Tesla 'All Hands' Meeting. Here's What He Said. - Barron's

Jeff Bezos, left, and Elon Musk

Getty Images; Reuters

Elon Musk fired his latest shot across the bow at Jeff Bezos, as the billionaires' companies spar in front of federal regulators over satellite internet.

After Amazon asked the Federal Communications Commission to dismiss SpaceX's latest amendment to its Starlink satellite network, Musk emphasized his company's response that Bezos is exceptionally litigious.

"Filing legal actions against SpaceX is *actually* his full-time job," Musk tweeted Wednesday.

Amazon did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

SpaceX filed a Starlink amendment on Aug. 19 with the FCC, outlining its plan for the Gen2 version of its satellite network.

Starlink isthe company's capital-intensive projectto build an interconnected internet network with thousands of satellites,known in the space industry as a constellation,designed to deliver high-speed internet to consumers anywhere on Earth. While the Starlink service is still in beta, the company has over 100,000 users in 14 countries, with over half a million orders or refundable deposits placed by potential customers.

SpaceX has launched 1,740 Starlink satellites to date, and Gen2 is planned to have nearly 30,000 satellites in total.

Amazon has been working onits own satellite internet called Project Kuiper. It plans to launch 3,236 internet satellites into low Earth orbit a system that would compete with Starlink. While Amazon in December passed a critical early hardware milestone for the antennas it needs to connect to the network, it has yet to begin producing or launching its satellites.

Bezos' company asked the FCC to dismiss SpaceX's Gen2 amendment request, saying it violates FCC rules by proposing two different configurations in orbit.

"By leaving nearly every major detail unsettled such as altitude, inclination, and even thetotal number of satellites SpaceX's application fails every test," Amazon's Kuiper corporate counsel Mariah Dodson Shuman wrote on Aug. 25.

SpaceX director of satellite policy David Goldman on Tuesday filed a response to Amazon's request, arguing that Bezos' company is trying to slow Starlink's progress to help Project Kuiper catch up.

"The Commission should recognize this delay tactic for what it is a continuation of efforts by the Amazon family of companies to hinder competitors to compensate for Amazon's failure to make progress of its own," Goldman wrote.

Goldman also said Amazon has not updated the FCC in "nearly 400 days" on Kuiper's approach to interference and orbital debris but "took only 4 days to object to" the SpaceX Gen2 amendment.

"While Amazon has waited 15 months to explain how its system works, it has lodged objections to SpaceX on average about every 16 days this year," Goldman added.

Musk has publicly criticized Bezos' companies multiple times in the past year, previously accusing Amazon of trying to "hamstring Starlink" and saying space company Blue Origin "should consider spending some money on actual lunar lander hardware," instead of suing NASA and hiring consultants.

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Elon Musk says Jeff Bezos' job is 'filing legal actions against SpaceX' in latest spat over Starlink - CNBC

Elon Musk is leaning into the hardline right-wing policies of his new home state or at least that's what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) says.

On the same day thata controversial near-total abortion ban took effect in the state, Abbott drew on support from Musk for Texas' "social policies" to make the point that he did not expect a backlash from the business community over the law.

"We continue to see a massive influx of these employers coming to the state of Texas becausecandidlynot only do they like the business environment . . . You need to understand thatthere are a lot of businesses and a lot of Americans who like the social positions that the state of Texas is taking," Abbott said during a Thursday interview with CNBC.

"Elon Muskwho I talk to frequentlyhe had to get out of California in part because of the social policies in California," Abbott continued. "Elon consistently tells me he likes the social policies in the state of Texas."

Rather than disagree, the Tesla CEO responded on Twitter by simply saying, "I would prefer to stay out of politics."

"In general, I believe government should rarely impose its will upon the people, and, when doing so, should aspire to maximize their cumulative happiness," Musk added.

Despite Musk's statement, the high-profile businessmanhasn't exactly been silent on issues of politics as of late.

Tesla sued California's Alameda County in May of last year after it enacted a shelter-in-place rule that was intendedto combat rising COVID-19 caseloads and stave off the total collapse of an already strained healthcare system.

Musk later cited the incident as the "last straw," which ultimately forced him to moveout of the Golden State.

On the foreign policy front, Musk made sure to tweet"we will coup whoever we want" after a left-wing party took power in Bolivia last October. Hiscomments sparked fierce backlash online.

The controversial CEO has largely stayed mum on the issue of taxes, though his move to Texas could potentially save him billionsbecause the state has neithercapital gains nor income taxes.

Not that it would matter much, apparently. A bombshell expose released by ProPublica earlier this year revealedthat Musk paid less than $70,000 in federal income taxes between2015-2017and exactly $0 in 2018 putting him at an astronomically lower tax rate than the average American, regardless of income level.

Musk accomplishes this through anarrangement in which heforegoeshis salary as Tesla CEO andlives off loans taken out against his massive equity in the company.

He also appears to beembracing the "social policies" of his new home statejust as Tesla attempts to corner the market on electric trucks.

Pickups are the No. 1 bestselling vehicle type in America, and Tesla's brand-new cybertruck has the potential to be a huge moneymaker for the company if it can capture even a small chunk of the market for truck buyers. It's no coincidence that Musk is embracing Texas, either, given that more than oneout of every six pickups sold in the U.S. is bought there.

It appears that Musk's canny marketingfor the vehicles mightbe working, too. Reports suggest that Tesla has received more than 1 million preorders for its cybertruck.

Productionwas originally slated to start this year, though it was ultimately pushed back to 2022 last month.

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Elon Musk loves Texas' right-wing "social policies" at least that's what Greg Abbott says - Salon

This is a story about Elon Musk, SpaceX, Twitter,and adifficult truth. If you like it, I think you'll also enjoy my ebook, Elon Musk Has Very Big Plans, which you can download here for free.

Our story begins with something Musktweeted in responsetoa journalist's report on thelegal battle between SpaceX and Amazonover efforts to build and launch satellites providing broadband Internet connectivity.

All of which brings us to the threemost recent FCC filings in this ongoing battle, which in turn prompted Musk's tweet:

"Amazon's recent missive is unfortunately only the latest in its continuing efforts to slow down competition ...while neglecting to resolve the Commission's concerns about Amazon's own non-geostationary orbit ('NGSO') satellite system.

...

While Amazon has waited 15 months to explain how its system works, it has lodged objections to SpaceX on average about every 16 days this year."

With that, we reach Musk's tweet, which came in response to a reportby Michael Sheetz,who covers space forCNBC:

"Filing legal actions against SpaceX is *actually* his full-time job."

I laughed out loud for a secondwhen I read this. Even though Jeff Bezos is only referred to once in the FCC legal documents that I can find (and not even by name), we all knowwho Musk has to bereferring to here. Right? At least I think so.

And it's amusing to watch sometimes as Musk trolls Bezos on Twitter. He really seems to enjoy it. However,I think there's also abrutal, messy, ugly truth contained within thetweet.

Assuming this is a very thinly-veileddig at Bezos,weallknow that Bezos's full-time job is not really to use the legal system toadvocate for Kuiper, and often against SpaceX. (He's busy these days riding rockets, and executive-chairmaning.)

But, it issomebody's job.

Whose job? Well, within its recentfiling,SpaceX says Amazon "routinely brings as many as six lobbyists and lawyers to its many meetings with the Commission about SpaceX."

Meanwhile, SpaceX'sdirector of satellite policy, who signed the latest filing, is an accomplished lawyer who previously worked as a senior advisor to the former FCC chairman and in Congress.

And that, I venture to say --even though most people don't like to admit it -- that this is exactlyhowour system is designed to work. I'd even go so far as to say it's a good thing, all things considered.

Because,we're talking about the launching of many thousands of commercial satellites -- an unprecedented scale -- along with the groundbreaking use of frequency spectrum.It's difficult even to think through the second and third-order effects, along with the size of the opportunity.

So, even people who want less government overall mightagree that in this case, it probably makes sense to have a strong regulatory framework in place.

Granted, it can be messy, delaying, annoying, and frustrating. But what's the alternative?

At the extreme,it would bea complete free-for-all, in which any company couldinterfere with any other company, and which paradoxically might discourage the best companies from competing in the first place.

Long-time readers will know that I am eager for SpaceX, or OneWeb, or Amazon, or some other company--I'm truly agnostic as to which one--to achieve the goal of bringing high-speed broadband Internet access to the mostremote places.

I've seen first-hand how a lack of broadband access can hold rural areas back in the 21st century.So,Ithink Iunderstand the urgency.

Now,I don't necessarily think Musk was trying to make all these points about the regulatory state and the legal system and innovation. I think he'smore likely just taking the opportunity to roast Bezos again.

But he's nevertheless revealed something important.

Since the time of Shakespeare, people have complained about lawyers. Heck, I complain about them, and I'm a non-practicing lawyer myself.

Still, when it comes to complicated business endeavors, there's an advantage to having a robust, complicated legal system.To paraphrase another great and bold thinker of an earlier time,it might just be the worst possible system,except for all those others that have everbeen tried.

Regardless, it's the system we live under.And when you're caught up in it, no matter what kind of business you're running, you'll be gladthat somebody's "actual full-time job"isto be your zealous advocate.

(Don't forget the free ebook: Elon Musk Has Very Big Plans, which you can download here.)

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Elon Musk's 'Full-Time Job' Tweet Was Funny, But It Revealed a Brutal Truth Most People Don't Admit - Inc.

Ma! Theyre doing weird things on the internet again!

You know when someone said that excess of everything is bad, this is specifically what they were referring to. AI has become so advanced in the past few years that its becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate photoshopped images from reality. An Israeli team of researchers has come up with a new and improved method of adding photorealistic changes to real photos using AI-based generative adversarial networks.

The working of the software is simple; the user is prompted to input a description of what they want added in the picture and the machine does the rest. The result is a weird and hilarious combination of the original picture along with the extra details you added. For example, you have a picture of a cat, you add the description which can be as small as a one-word feature such as cute. The result will be a cat with enlarged eyes which is a characteristic trait often associated with that specific word.

Up until now the cat example was a very cute one but researchers decided to add a bit of nightmare fuel into it and used a picture of Tesla and SpaceXs CEO, Elon Musk. By adding all kinds of descriptions from a Karen-bob cut to putting makeup on the poor guys face, we got a never-seen-before look of Elon Musk (and we cant stop staring simply because its just plain disturbing). Apparently, Scott Manley, a fellow space enthusiast, found the results a little too interesting.

Theres no argument that neural networks have come a long way and this face manipulation is one of the greatest examples of it. While it has a lighter side to it, this technology can be used in a lot of different applications and provide a beneficial outcome as well.

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People Are Using Neural Networks To Give Makeovers To Elon Musk Here Are The Results - Wonderful Engineering

Tesla will build a humanoid robot called Tesla Bot, CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday.

"We're also good at sensors and batteries and we'll probably have a prototype next year that looks like this," Musk said, shortly after an actor in a body suit designed to look like the Tesla robot gyrated wildly on stage. He remarked that the actor was not a real robot, but "the Tesla Bot will be real."

The announcement was made as part of AI Day, a series of tech talks hosted by Tesla in California to recruit machine learning talent.

The Tesla Bot is an example of Musk's showmanship, in which he announces that Tesla is working on exciting products scheduled for years into the future to energize backers including employees, customers, and investors. Often, those announcements don't happen on the timeline predicted.

For instance, at an 'Autonomy Day" event in Apr. 2019, Musk said the company would have 1 million autonomous "robotaxis" on the road in 2020. Those robotaxis are nowhere to be seen. In October 2016, Musk held an event at Universal Studios' back lot in Los Angeles to show off a product he called the Solar Roof. The solar roof tiles on display turned out to be merely conceptual.

If a humanoid robot works and can perform repetitive tasks that only humans can do today, Musk said, it has the chance to transform the world economy by driving labor costs down.

However, Musk warned that the robot "probably won't work" at first.

"It's intended to be friendly, of course, and navigate through a world of humans, and eliminate dangerous, repetitive and boring tasks," Musk said.

Musk said the robot, code-named "Optimus," is based on the same chips and sensors that Tesla's cars use for self-driving features. It's five foot eight inches tall, and has a screen where the head is for useful information, Musk said. Tesla is designing it so that humans will be able to run away from the robot or overpower it.

Slides displayed by Tesla on Thursday show that Autopilot cameras will be installed in the bot's head. It will be able to carry 45 pounds, lift 150 pounds, and weighs 125 pounds. It can run 5 miles per hour, Musk said.

Musk said the robot was not intended to help with Tesla's manufacturing, but that Tesla is developing a lot of the computers needed for robotics, so it makes sense for Tesla to build a robot.

"It should be able to, you know, please go to the store and get me the following groceries, that kind of thing," Musk said.

Originally posted here:

Elon Musk teases Tesla Bot, humanoid robot for repetitive ...

The Tesla Bot, a humanoid robot the carmaker unveiled Thursday evening.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Thursday unveiled a humanoid robot called the Tesla Bot that runs on the same AI used by Tesla's fleet of autonomous vehicles. A functioning version of the robot didn't make an appearance during Musk's reveal, though a slightly bizarre dance by a performer dressed like a Tesla Bot did.

The unexpected reveal came at the end of Tesla's AI Day presentation, with Musk providing few details about the slightly creepy, Slenderman-like robot beyond a few PowerPoint slides. The 5-foot-8-inch robot is expected to weigh in at 125 pounds and be built from "lightweight materials," he said.

Its head will be kitted out with the autopilot cameras used by Tesla's vehicles to sense the environment and will contain a screen to display information. Internally, it will be operating via Tesla's Full Self-Driving computer.

"It's intended to be friendly," Musk joked, "and navigate through a world built for humans."

From the lab to your inbox. Get the latest science stories from CNET every week.

The robot's appearance came after a 90-minute presentation detailing some of the artificial intelligence upgrades driving Tesla's electric vehicles, including the Dojo supercomputer, which helps train cars to navigate city streets without human assistance. "It makes sense to put that onto humanoid form," Musk said.

Now playing: Watch this: Elon Musk unveils Tesla Bot

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Three slides detailed the robot's proposed specifications, and Musk made sure he pointed out that you could both outrun the Tesla Bot and "overpower" it. He has, in the past, railed against the use of robots as weapons and warned of the risks AI might pose -- once calling it the "biggest risk we face as a civilization." I guess if they're your incredibly slow, easy-to-overpower robots, the dangers are reduced.

"We should be worried about AI," Musk reiterated during a question and answer session after the presentation. "What we're trying to do here at Tesla is make useful AI that people love and is ... unequivocally good."

One particular slide said the Tesla Bot would eliminate "dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks," and Musk provided an example, suggesting the robot could be told to "go to the store and get ... the following groceries." Not that such a task is particularly dangerous, but you might find it repetitive and boring.

Musk, prone to making bold statements about the future, riffed a little on how he envisions Tesla Bot changing the future of work, too. "This, I think, will be quite profound," he said. "Essentially, in the future, physical work will be a choice. If you want to do it, you can, but you won't need to do it."

Read more:No one knows when Tesla Bot will arrive. Here are robots you can experience now

It's hard to say how far off such a future might be, but there's a huge gap between showing off a few PowerPoint slides and delivering an actual, working humanoid robot. It's probably going to be a long while before you get your bread and milk via the Tesla Bot, but, Musk said, a prototype will likely be ready next year.

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Elon Musk unveils Tesla Bot, a humanoid robot that uses ...

Tesla CEO Elon Muskannounced Thursday evening that the electric carmaker is now branching out and working on a humanoid Tesla bot with one analyst calling the project a head-scratcher that will further agitate investors.

Musk made the announcement at the companys AI Day event, which Tesla holds in an effort to recruit the best AI talent, Musk has previously said.

The mega-billionaire tech entrepreneur said a prototype of the5 ft. 8 in., 125-pound robot could be ready as soon as next year.

Its basically going to start dealing with work that is boring, repetitive and dangerous, Musk said at the event beside an actor in a skintight body suit designed to look like the Tesla robot. What is the work that people would least like to do?

Musk did not say when or at what price the bot might be sold to individuals or organizations, but insisted that it will have a profound impact on the economy by driving down labor costs.

But not right now because this robot doesnt work, Musk noted, nonetheless insisting that, In the future, physical work will be a choice.

Musk said the robot. which is code-named Optimus,will use the same chips and sensors as Teslas so-called Autopilot software, which has come under intense scrutiny from lawmakers and federal regulators.

Were making the pieces that would be useful for [building] a humanoid robot, so we should probably make it. If we dont, someone else will and we want to make sure its safe, Musk said.

The bot will be able to carry 45 pounds and lift 150 pounds, Musk said, adding that it will be able to run 5 miles per hour. He said the machine will be designed so that humans easily run away from and overpower it.

Talk to it and say, please pick up that bolt and attach it to a car with that wrench, and it should be able to do that, Musk said. Please go to the store and get me the following groceries. That kind of thing. I think we can do that.

The unveiling of the bot is Musks latest display of showmanship, but the billionaire has a knack for setting lofty goals, especially when it comes to machine-learning projects.

At an Autonomy Day event in 2019, Musk said the company would have 1 million autonomous robotaxis on the road by 2020 but such cars have yet to be produced.

Unfortunately, as we have seen with robotaxis and other future sci-fi projects for Musk we view this Tesla Bot as an absolute head-scratcher that will further agitate investors at a time the Street is showing growing concern around rising EV competition and safety issues for Tesla, Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, said Friday.

While we appreciate Musks longer-term technology vision, a Tesla Bot is not what investors want to see, he added.

Ives said Tesla has a number of issues it should be focused on, including securing its supply of microchips that has hampered global production of new cars and reportedly led to months-long delays of Tesla deliveries.

He also said the company needs to deal with growing scrutiny of its Autopilot features and growing its position in the Chinese electric-car market.

Ives nonetheless maintained his firms outperform rating on Tesla stock and reiterated his $1,000 12-month price target, implying upside of nearly 40 percent based on Thursdays closing price.

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Elon Musk unveils humanoid 'Tesla bot'

After a dense presentation about the undeniably impressive work Tesla is doing with AI, the companys self-anointed Technoking, Elon Musk, capped the evening by bringing out a dancer in a spandex suit. Behold, said Musk: my Tesla Bot.

The dancer in the suit, he said, was the model for a new humanoid robot Tesla will produce in the near future. After the dubstep and applause had faded, the vaguest of briefing slides promised that the Tesla Bot will stand five feet, eight inches (1.7m), weigh 125 pounds (56kg), have human-level hands, and eliminate dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks.

Musk said that building a human-replacement robot something no company in the world is close to achieving was a logical step forward from Teslas work developing self-driving cars. Our cars are semi-sentient robots on wheels, he said. It kind of makes sense to put that on to a humanoid form. Were also quite good at sensors and batteries and actuators so we think well probably have a prototype some time next year that basically looks like this.

Even by Musks standards, it was a bizarre and brilliant bit of tomfoolery: a multipurpose sideshow that trolled Tesla skeptics, fed the fans, ginned up the share price, and created some eye-catching headlines. The latter being particularly important in a week when most Tesla news has focused on a federal investigation into a tendency of the companys Autopilot software to crash into parked emergency vehicles. Forget about all that, says Musk, just look at the person in the spandex suit! Next year, itll be a real robot, I promise.

Do you believe him? Should you believe him? I wont answer that for you, but I want to restate the facts. Elon Musk got up on stage last night and promised that Tesla, a company whose driver assist software is unable to reliably avoid parked ambulances, would soon build a fully functioning humanoid robot. Musk said that the machine would be able to follow human instructions intuitively, responding correctly to commands like please go to a store and get me the following groceries. He outlined these scenarios and then said: Yeah, I think we can do that. This was minutes after hed ushered away the best demo of the Tesla Bot available: a dancer in a spandex suit. If nothing else, you have to admire the chutzpah.

To put Musks claims in context, remember that Boston Dynamics, a company which makes Atlas, the most advanced bipedal robot in the world, has never described its machines as anything but R&D. Atlas, says Boston Dynamics, is simply a way to push the cutting edge of robotics: its not even close to commercial deployment. In recent videos of the machine, the company showed how difficult building a bipedal robot is and how often Atlas trips and falls. Its also worth noting that Boston Dynamics has been working on Atlas and its bipedal predecessors for more than a decade. Musk thinks he can leapfrog their work in a year.

Carl Berry, a lecturer in robotics engineering at the UKs University of Central Lancashire, put things to me in less uncertain terms: [Calling it] horse shit sounds generous, frankly. Im not saying that he shouldnt be doing research like this, but its the usual overblown hype. Berry stressed that deploying robotics and AI in manufacturing usually required making the simplest machine possible: not the most complex.

Im not saying Tesla researching this stuff isnt a good thing, he said, but between them and companies like Boston Dynamics they leave the public with unrealistic expectations of what robotics is currently capable of or will be for many years.

I personally dont doubt that if Musk wants to he can produce something that looks like a Tesla Bot in 2022. It wouldnt be hard to make a decent automaton something on the level of Disneys more advanced theme park models, for example. Once hes got it to walk out onstage he can even send it to space, just for the headlines. But if he does, it will be just another distraction. Robotics are having a huge effect on manufacturing, no doubt about that, but theres no need to pretend that machines need to look human to do so.

This sort of bait-and-switch is often how Musk operates. Just think about how his plans for the Hyperloop changed over time. The technology was announced as a railgun-like train system that would move people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than half an hour. Over the years, these ambitions have shrunk until the project morphed into The Loop: a small tunnel that you can drive a car through, if you want. (Otherwise known as: a tunnel.)

What the Tesla Bot really reminded me of is Sophia: the mechanical chatbot thats appeared on chat shows and magazine covers. Sophia relies on misdirection to fool audiences and is a regular target of AI experts scorn. But it also has a job to do. As one of the robots creators, Ben Goertzel, told me in 2017, Sophia works by priming our imagination, encouraging us to fool ourselves into thinking the future is closer than the evidence suggests. In the process, the robot generates funding and news coverage for its makers.

If I tell people Im using probabilistic logic to do reasoning on how best to prune the backward chaining inference trees that arise in our logic engine, they have no idea what Im talking about, said Goertzel. But if I show them a beautiful smiling robot face, then they get the feeling that AGI may indeed be nearby and viable.

That feeling is what Musk wants to inculcate in his audience, be they investors or otherwise. His twist on the Sophia strategy is that he doesnt even need a simulacrum of a robot to sell the dream. All he needs is a dancer in a spandex suit. Now thats innovation.

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Dont overthink it: Elon Musks Tesla Bot is a joke - The Verge