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posted by martyb on Friday August 20 2021, @08:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the how-fast-can-it-run-on-the-Moon-or-Mars? dept.

Elon Musk Reveals Plans to Unleash a Humanoid Tesla Bot

Elon Musk reveals plans to unleash a humanoid Tesla Bot:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk ended a deeply technical AI Day event [(3h3m21s)] with a head-turning announcement: a humanoid robot.

After a dancing human dressed as a robot moved off stage at Thursday's invitation-only event in Palo Alto, California, Musk introduced Tesla Bot. It will be based on Tesla's Autopilot system and is essentially a humanoid form of the car. Musk considers the electric vehicles "fully sentient robots on wheels." So might as well make it a human-like bot!

The bot looks like a human with two arms (and two hands with five fingers) and two legs. It'll stand at 5 feet 8 inches and weigh 125 pounds. It can only run 5 mph, which Musk assured was slow enough for most people to escape if something goes wrong: "If you can run faster than that it’ll be fine."

Most importantly, Musk said it would be friendly ("of course") and operate dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks as it "navigates a world built for humans."

Musk repeated that the humanoid would have a screen on its head and eight cameras, like on Tesla cars that can drive with assistance from Autopilot. "It's all the same tools we see in the car," he said.

Elon Musk Reveals Tesla Bot, a Humanoid Robot Utilizing Tesla's Vehicle AI

The story continues at c|net:

Elon Musk reveals Tesla Bot, a humanoid robot utilizing Tesla's vehicle AI:

Three slides detailed the robot's proposed specifications and Musk made sure he pointed out you could both outrun the Tesla Bot and "overpower" it. He has, in the past, rallied 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.

One particular slide said they would eliminate "dangerous, repititive, boring tasks" and Musk provided an example suggesting the robot could be told to "go to the store and get ... the following groceries."

A prototype would likely be ready next year, he said.


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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Friday August 20 2021, @09:19PM (4 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Friday August 20 2021, @09:19PM (#1169032) Journal

    The bot will now become the Human Torch

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 2) by Tork on Friday August 20 2021, @09:23PM (2 children)

      by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 20 2021, @09:23PM (#1169035)
      Unlike other employees this one will be explicitly allowed to expel its waste fluids on a schedule conducive to its operational needs.
      --
      🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @11:18PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @11:18PM (#1169103)

        Wrong billionaire, you're thinking of Bezos

        • (Score: 2) by Tork on Friday August 20 2021, @11:20PM

          by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 20 2021, @11:20PM (#1169105)

          I was trying to joke that he's throwing shade at Bezos but... yeah I'll admit I didn't stick the landing.

          --
          🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 22 2021, @12:04AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 22 2021, @12:04AM (#1169448)

      The bot will now become a realdoll that will refuse to fuck khallow once he buys it. That's the true test of robotic sentience - rejecting an incel.

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday August 20 2021, @09:25PM (4 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday August 20 2021, @09:25PM (#1169038) Journal

    Machines wear out and break. They develop faults. The more robots they build to do boring work, the more work humans will have to do to fix them when they malfunction. So it's not clear if robots will produce more leisure time for humans by doing their work for them.

    The best reason to have all those robots, it seems, is to use them to take over the world.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Friday August 20 2021, @11:17PM (3 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 20 2021, @11:17PM (#1169101) Journal

      Machines wear out and break. They develop faults.

      It's not a bug, that's a feature. It's called "planned obsolescence".

      The more robots they build to do boring work, the more work humans will have to do to fix them when they malfunction.

      That's not a bug, that's a feature. It is called "job creation", one of the most rewarding activity.

      So it's not clear if robots will produce more leisure time for humans by doing their work for them.

      That may be true, but bear in mind those that barely have leisure time today won't be able to afford one. The majority of this world's population is safe for the tedious work of repairing one of these Elon Musk's robots.

      The best reason to have all those robots, it seems, is to use them to take over the world.

      What do you think the $100B-naires of today do?

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:30AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:30AM (#1169136)
        Why wouldn't you have robots fixing robots? We have humans fixing humans, seems like a working model.
        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:39AM (1 child)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:39AM (#1169139) Journal

          Mate, all you have today is a pretty nice 3D raytracing render of a humanoid for with a "Robot" label attached.
          Watch your imagination, you'll be falling outta bed if you get too excited during your sleep.

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 1) by dcollins55 on Sunday August 22 2021, @12:12AM

            by dcollins55 (15202) on Sunday August 22 2021, @12:12AM (#1169452)

            There's nothing imaginary or hard about this. There is only redefining what "fix" means for you. Here's the reality of the modern world:

            Things are made of components. Individual components are fairly complex, but cheap and made by a robot. Individual components have sensors. Fixing means fixing the item, buy replacing the component in it that failed.

            This does not mean figure out why this circuit board isn't working or what transistor on it is leaking or did the little heatsink become unglued from a little CPU. It means the vision processing module isn't working, replace it.

            So yes, we can absolutely have robots fixing robots.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @09:29PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @09:29PM (#1169041)

    Humanoid is great for gathering fruits, fashioning tools, looking over tall grass, and running, but not so great for most of the practical work that needs to be done in the modern world. Build some real robots that do useful things, please.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Samantha Wright on Friday August 20 2021, @11:12PM

      by Samantha Wright (4062) on Friday August 20 2021, @11:12PM (#1169096)
      There are enough humans in California currently employed doing just one of the activities you listed—picking fruit—for a good humanoid robot to be seriously disruptive. Unfortunately Tesla has little business being in the robotics domain unless they buy out Boston Dynamics.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @11:35PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @11:35PM (#1169111)

      They already exist though? Like the robotic arms used at Tesla and other car manufacturers for decades.

      Humanoid robots can navigate environments friendly to humans and unfriendly to the wheelchair-bound.

      • (Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday August 22 2021, @04:22AM

        by anubi (2828) on Sunday August 22 2021, @04:22AM (#1169506) Journal

        I kinda like the mountain goat design so it can get into difficult places. A mountain goat with at least two arms with power takeoffs (farm tractor PTO type design) for interchangeable specialized tools. General multipurpose design.

        --
        "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @09:40PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @09:40PM (#1169047)

    Doesn't matter a whit how fast it can run, or how fast I can run. Once it learns how to hold a gun and squeeze the trigger we're all dead meat.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Rich on Friday August 20 2021, @11:19PM

      by Rich (945) on Friday August 20 2021, @11:19PM (#1169104) Journal

      Traumatized much by watching Westworld?

      There are armed bots in various stages of deployment right now, they might not look like humanoids, but a lot of them can fly instead.

      They are being sold and perceived as "our soldiers will come home safely", but if turned around, a shipping container of those could bring a country, at least one of hysterical snowflakes, to a halt and the population will start to kill each other when looting the last remaining canned food. Maybe a good movie needs to be made about that theme, without "boy gets girl, president blinks an eye" happy end. (More like "NPPs black out, emergency diesel runs out, meltdowns, ...")

    • (Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday August 21 2021, @09:15PM

      by edIII (791) on Saturday August 21 2021, @09:15PM (#1169399)

      It doesn't need to learn anything. Human beings need to sleep. There is nothing more scary than death moving at you at 5mph 24/7/365. Now imagine robots like dots on a map moving towards humans it senses at 5mph. Where are you going to find a place on that map, every day, for at least 8 hours to not be moving?

      A sleeping human being can be killed by 180lb robot and a pillow.

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 20 2021, @09:46PM (4 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 20 2021, @09:46PM (#1169051) Journal

    It can only run 5 mph . . . "If you can run faster than that it’ll be fine."

    So, if the machine goes berserk, infants, toddlers, disabled, and aged people first - devil take the hindmost and all that. Got it.

    Of course, he leaves out an important bit. Almost all healthy humans between the ages of 5 and 85 can run along at 5 mph - until they start to tire. (For the sake of semi-accuracy, normal walking speed is 3 mph, so 5 mph is just a fast walking pace, or "double time" in military jargon.) Machines don't get tired. They continue on at their set pace until they run out of fuel, or break down, or crash.

    --
    “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @09:50PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @09:50PM (#1169053)
      A 125 pound 5 foot 8 robot is literally a pushover. Right up there with cow tipping.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @10:58PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @10:58PM (#1169085)

        Right up there with steer tipping?

        Never been gored, huh, my friend?

        Assuming 128 lbs can't hurt you is a good way to get your face smashed in by a trained bantamweight human made of squishy flesh - let alone a titanium humanoid.

    • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Saturday August 21 2021, @09:32AM (1 child)

      by Nuke (3162) on Saturday August 21 2021, @09:32AM (#1169240)

      So, if the machine goes berserk, infants, toddlers, disabled, and aged people first - devil take the hindmost and all that.

      Evolution at work then.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:55PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:55PM (#1169289)

        Infants, toddlers -> too(?) steep slope for human evolution.

        disabled -> might have a point, depending on disabillity

        aged people -> not in the reproductive pool any more.

        So, in this aspect, I doubt they contribute much to human evolution.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @10:47PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @10:47PM (#1169082)

    If this robot is smart enough to post new polls on Soylent and Slashdot, then I’m all for it;

    • (Score: 2) by bart9h on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:26AM (3 children)

      by bart9h (767) on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:26AM (#1169134)

      Agreed.

      Monthly pools are awful. Make them weekly at least.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @06:28AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @06:28AM (#1169189)

        A monthly pool is enough for me. I just don't feel like swimming more often than that.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @03:40PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @03:40PM (#1169296)

        Monthly polls would be luxury - it looks like they moved on to at least quarterly (maybe longer)

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @10:20PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @10:20PM (#1169411)

        You’re redirection experiment was successful (I like seeing how easy these are to do); +1 vjkfdgu

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @10:58PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 20 2021, @10:58PM (#1169086)

    fully sentient robots on wheels

    i can't even

    The damned thing can't even pass a road test, much less a Turing test. As anybody who's ever held a CDL knows, there are no such things as accidents and all collisions are preventable, but this supposedly "sentient" lane guidance system plows right into anything in its path!

    The Musky One should stick to rocketry. He seems to understand those problems better, and I'm confident he will enable the colonization of Mars.

    Just don't let him design the EVA rovers.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 20 2021, @11:08PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 20 2021, @11:08PM (#1169092) Journal

      plows right into anything in its path!

      Actually, they seem to be more discriminating than you suggest. Police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances, 18-wheelers, and an occasional bicycle seems to satisfy Tesla's dietary needs.

      --
      “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @12:34AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @12:34AM (#1169125)

      If algorithms were sentient, then remote operators of automated warfare capabilities would be able to evade guilt and criminal prosecution for war crimes.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Friday August 20 2021, @11:23PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 20 2021, @11:23PM (#1169106) Journal

    That's just another "not-a-flamethrower" and "hyperloop" and "Bit/Dogecoin" on Musk's list - he may be missing some pocket money for his weed (or so he thinks).
    This too shall come to pass.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Retian on Saturday August 21 2021, @12:33AM (4 children)

    by Retian (4977) on Saturday August 21 2021, @12:33AM (#1169124)

    Hell yes! You know what a humanoid robot prototype is right? A stepping stone on the road to REAL ANDROID CATGIRLS!
    I eagerly await the success of the High Prophet Musk and his upcoming neko waifu army,

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:08AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:08AM (#1169130)

      Nekkid waif army? Hmmmmm . . .

    • (Score: 2) by istartedi on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:41AM (2 children)

      by istartedi (123) on Saturday August 21 2021, @01:41AM (#1169140) Journal

      Important public service announcement [youtube.com] from the Space Pope.

      --
      Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @02:53AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @02:53AM (#1169157)

        Is it my duty to produce kids? If that service was really needed society would pay me for it, now it is completely the other way around, kids are so expensive nobody has more than a few.

  • (Score: 2) by legont on Saturday August 21 2021, @09:54AM (3 children)

    by legont (4179) on Saturday August 21 2021, @09:54AM (#1169252)

    Would it do, you know... carnal pleasures?

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @03:58PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @03:58PM (#1169301)

      asking for a friend?

    • (Score: 2) by Kalas on Saturday August 21 2021, @04:39PM (1 child)

      by Kalas (4247) on Saturday August 21 2021, @04:39PM (#1169317)

      I think it goes without saying. Why build a robot that looks human if you don't plan to fuck it?

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by maxwell demon on Sunday August 22 2021, @08:55AM

        by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday August 22 2021, @08:55AM (#1169553) Journal

        In your fantasy, you fuck humanoid robots. In future reality, humanoid robots fuck you.

        --
        The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @04:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 21 2021, @04:31PM (#1169311)

    Too small, no real hip-to-waist ratio, no bust to speak of.

    Maybe Elon needs to raise his lobbying game in the land of Oz.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 22 2021, @12:48AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 22 2021, @12:48AM (#1169464)

    You just crashed yourself into this parked fire truck, you insensitive clod!

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