They marched in line, interacted with guests, and poured drinks while making small talk. The vision of the future Elon Musk put forward with his Optimus humanoid robots at Tesla’s recent Cybercab event earlier this month was as astounding as it was unbelievable.
That latter word was important: It turned out the robots weren’t operating under their own steam, but were instead remotely operated by humans. While the robots were able to walk down the street in Tesla’s grand parade to show off its tech under their own steam, pretty much everything else they did that night involved human intervention.
“We are in the proof of concept phase for robotics. While we’ve seen many demos online and on stage, the capabilities of these machines have been designed for controlled environments and limited use cases,” says Nayan Jain, executive director of AI at digital product studio ustwo. “If you look deeper at live demos and videos, the generic walk cycles and manipulation tasks like pick and place or tool use are technically impressive, but not robust enough to work independently.”
Jain was optimistic about the potential future of robots—but believes that for some of the higher-profile public examples, it’ll take some time to come to fruition. “We are not at the point yet of true automation with humanoids,” he says. “The robotic future is coming, but it may take longer than we expect.”
But while Tesla’s vision of the future may be a little while off, there are indications that—outside of the limelight that Musk draws to himself and his companies—humanoid robots are on the cusp of mass adoption. In factories in the United States right now, human-like robots work on the same factory floors as humans, albeit in their own fenced-off areas. And elsewhere in the world, the robotic future is even closer to reality, and in some instances, is already upon us.
In August, China hosted the World Robot Conference in Beijing, more than 30 humanoid robots from private companies and university labs were on display. The name is a misnomer: Almost all the 30 representatives came from China, but it highlighted how developed the technology is in the country. The Chinese government announced at the event that they hoped the most developed humanoid robots would be entering mass production in 2025, and would be allocating government funding to the fight.
China is the powerhouse of the humanoid robot industry at present, with half of all robotic installations worldwide in 2022 within the country’s borders. The country—and its cities—are willing to fund the development of robots significantly.