Is this what $500 thousand is for? Tesla Optimus robot in the Salesforce office, Elon Musk and Marc Benioff comment on

The future is already here. At least, that’s what Elon Musk is trying to convince us of when he launches unmanned Robotaxi and the humanoid robot Optimus. But we shouldn’t expect too much from this “future”. For the “autonomous” Robotaxi to work constant remote supervision with management is requiredand the latest video of Tesla Optimus, a robot that is supposed to become an important part of the company’s strategy, shows that it cannot perform any action for almost a minute in a row.

The video was posted last week on the social network X (formerly Twitter) by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Earlier, he stated that his company artificial intelligence performs up to 50% of the workand that he replaced 4000 employees with artificial intelligencecalling this approach Agentforce. It was this strange term that Benioff used in his tweet to describe Musk’s robot.

The video shows Benioff and Musk talking to a golden Optimus. The robot begins by saying that it is “just resting.”

Benioff asks:

The system literally freezes on this question. The robot answers:

Even this task proves too difficult for Optimus. It stares at the camera for several seconds without doing anything, and then Musk speaks off-screen:

Eventually, the robot finally starts moving, making a sound similar to plastic rattling, and heads down a narrow passageway in an empty office — seemingly in the direction of the kitchen. Musk adds:

It is worth recalling that Musk called this robot the basis of Tesla’s future, claiming that Optimus would account for 80% of the company’s value. In his tweet, Benioff reiterated that the robot will do human work for $200,000-$500,000 and will be a “productivity revolution.”

However, if a device that costs half a million dollars can’t even deliver a drink, it’s hard to call it a breakthrough. Despite this, Musk has repeatedly emphasized that humanoid robots are the future. According to his forecasts, there will be 10 billion of them by 2040, each with a minimum price of $20,000.

Even the best demonstrated feature of Optimus — the ability to walk on two legs — is not something exceptional. As a Bluesky user with the nickname El Gato Astronomico noted, “Walking without falling is both extremely difficult and at the same time the easiest thing to teach a robot. So this system is about 11% closer to the level of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas from seven years ago, 3% closer to something really useful, and 0.05% closer to performing tasks cheaper than a human.”

Another commentator summarized:

In addition, even if Optimus knew where to find a Coca-Cola, he still has jointless, mannequin-like arms, so he would not be physically able to pick up the bottle.

So, despite the loud statements of Elon Musk and Benioff, the Tesla Optimus demonstration showed the project’s weaknesses. The robot, which is estimated to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and is expected to be a multi-billion dollar market, so far demonstrates only basic walking functionality. This raises questions about the realistic timeline for its readiness to perform tasks that could be useful for business or everyday life.

Source: pcgamer