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Musk admits no Optimus robots are doing ‘useful work’ at Tesla — after claiming otherwise

Ok-Caterpillar9092 | 2026-01-29 17:16 | 845 views

Comments (221)
mustangfan12 2026-01-29 17:20

Wow Optimus is gonna be a bigger flop than the Cybertruck

LightMission4937 2026-01-29 17:21

No 💩. Neither is Clusk.

whitehypeman 2026-01-29 17:24

Neither is Elon

Individual-Mud262 2026-01-29 17:24

Its like...this guy lies or something?

Euler007 2026-01-29 17:25

Can they fetch his Ketamine yet?

CivilWay1444 2026-01-29 17:25

Color me shocked, Leon lying again? Tesla is junk.

PlannerSean 2026-01-29 17:27

Well, the earning call already happened so nbd

Relative_Drop3216 2026-01-29 17:28

Tesla is about to go bankrupt

Phyllis_Tine 2026-01-29 17:29

What would happen if Grok was made the CEO and chief decision-maker at Tesla? I'm just asking questions!

spaham 2026-01-29 17:30

It’s gonna go beep boop beep and be real expensive

OkLetterhead7047 2026-01-29 17:31

Sadly a ton of gullible people will go bankrupt with it

theclovek 2026-01-29 17:32

Ketamine dispenser will be built in.

bassbeatsbanging 2026-01-29 17:32

The only thing it will do well is spy on you.

kaninkanon 2026-01-29 17:33

It's not going to flop, because it's not going to be for sale.

DhOnky730 2026-01-29 17:33

Every factory or warehouse I've been in is organized chaos. I've asked business people how likely they are to utilize humanoid robots, and they look at me like I'm an alien. Some have automation, but it's specialized for the task at hand. None of them foresee humanoid robots replacing people in their factories and warehouses in their lifetimes.

AustinBike 2026-01-29 17:33

No, not sadly. They have had years of missed targets and promises unfulfilled. Anyone in the stock at this point knows that they have a poor track record of delivery so if they lose money it is on them.

ridukosennin 2026-01-29 17:35

Nah business fundamentals long ago stopped mattering with Tesla, it’s more like a meme coin that is fueld by vibes and hype

[deleted] 2026-01-29 17:35

I doubt it'll even do that on its own.

Queasy-Protection-50 2026-01-29 17:39

Shocker

DonkeyImpossible316 2026-01-29 17:40

Shocked. /s

SA2018 2026-01-29 17:40

But they do walk really slow and fall over when the remote operator disconnects!

TheInternetsLOL 2026-01-29 17:41

No shit, since it's incapable of doing anything to begin with. Why is anyone surprised by this?

[deleted] 2026-01-29 17:41

Dude just lies like crazy.

Electrifying2017 2026-01-29 17:42

Stock jumped on the news.

After-Cartoonist-157 2026-01-29 17:43

But sooner or later, memecoins explode.

R3luctant 2026-01-29 17:44

But it does allow for them to say they aren't making money because they are spending money retooling the assembly line, they can use that excuse for another year. Then for a year after that they can say they are ramping up production and building interest.

After-Cartoonist-157 2026-01-29 17:44

Tesla would be more Nazi and would sell sex robots shaped like minors

IncarceratedScarface 2026-01-29 17:44

Lmao his new ruse. Keep kicking the can and pumping the stock

kahner 2026-01-29 17:46

This "pivot" to AI taxis robots seems so unbelievably stupid and actually unbelievable that I can't wrap my mind around it and how the stock hasn't cratered. As an exercise in rationale analysis and checking my own biases, I'm trying to think back to early tesla and space x and what my and general consensus on the companies was and how it compares to today. I don't have any written record of my old opinions, but I'm pretty sure I thought they were both reasonable ventures with great goals that were technologically and economically challenging but achievable. And now, in retrospect, I think that was a reasonable view at the time, there was no reason to believe the challenges were insurmountable and both companies were demonstrating competence, progress and execution of goals and milestones. I think the general public consensus was similar or more bullish. Comparing this to today, with Tesla, aAI and their products and prospective products it sees vastly different and objectively more farfetched and ridiculous. Am I retconning history on this? Were people just as negative and skeptical of early Tesla and SpaceX success?

[deleted] 2026-01-29 17:52

There also exist cubic warehouses with specialized drones driving on top to fetch and store requested boxes. Fully utilizing the available space. Not for heavy stuff though.

Real-Technician831 2026-01-29 17:52

He has learned that lies pump the stock more than admitting them later drops the value.

geekbot2000 2026-01-29 17:53

Y'all not thinking this through. "Flop" in this case means the robot will trip, and then do something resembling a fish or the worm on the ground. A conniption fit, if you will.

rocketonmybarge 2026-01-29 17:53

If they do $100 refundable pre-orders for Optimus at 30k, how many do we think they could sell? 4-5 million?

sync-centre 2026-01-29 17:54

Just a $5k deposit to reserve your spot

EnvironmentalClue218 2026-01-29 17:57

Has he announced the price for one?

HelpfulSpread601 2026-01-29 18:00

But there's going to be a gorillion of them by the end of the year /s

ridukosennin 2026-01-29 18:00

Not if they become too big to fail

ArQ7777 2026-01-29 18:02

Elon won't need Optimus craze after SpaceX IPO. He will have a lot of play money.

doalwa 2026-01-29 18:03

EM is so full of shit…how much longer until he gets publicly exposed for what he is?

mishap1 2026-01-29 18:05

You have to consider that the current baseline level of Nazism is already pretty high so it might be an improvement. For the second one, given their current level of capability on building robots, I expect it'll just be current sub optimal Optimus with some vile Grok photos glued on.

Going2beBANNEDanyway 2026-01-29 18:05

Robots are like AI. No one asked for them but yet billions will be wasted making them.

New-Disaster-2061 2026-01-29 18:07

no it's going to be another FSS just constantly next year

Chokedee-bp 2026-01-29 18:09

Tesla will make a billion off of bag holders putting down a $5K deposit so that 2 years later they can get a robot that does the same thing a $50 Amazon Alexa can do today

tuctrohs 2026-01-29 18:11

I was thinking that some critical components would crack on impact, so it would do something resembling a dead fish on the ground.

After-Cartoonist-157 2026-01-29 18:18

I literally don't understand this economy

After-Cartoonist-157 2026-01-29 18:19

I hope so too, hahaha

LSF604 2026-01-29 18:20

and the reaction to that will be a stock price boom

ddesideria89 2026-01-29 18:21

This changed yesterday when they announced that they will "retool model s & x in Fremont for Optimus production". Now optimus will be used as a justification for layoffs. How is that for useful work?

Objective_Mousse7216 2026-01-29 18:23

Optiloss robots

ghostfaceschiller 2026-01-29 18:26

It’s never going to be for sale to the public

Lowmax2 2026-01-29 18:27

Why?

[deleted] 2026-01-29 18:35

Damn, I was really looking to owning my own Nazi robot with a internet connection back to Tesla.

torokunai 2026-01-29 18:38

Ten years ago I assumed Tesla could maybe grow to BMW size so was fairly valued at $300, or $20 post splits. Pretty right on that

egowritingcheques 2026-01-29 18:39

Apart from these robots being useless they are also dangerous. That means you cannot mix robots (like Optimus) and humans on the factory floor.

h1rik1 2026-01-29 18:41

Its not going to flop, because it will 10x the stock without being sold.

Footbag01 2026-01-29 18:43

Stop being so negative…. The better way to put it is “The Cybertruck will outsell Optimus.”

zombieda 2026-01-29 18:43

...Then development of the Optimus FSD (Full Self Derp)

ArctoEarth 2026-01-29 18:43

He’s milking the cow like he always does

[deleted] 2026-01-29 18:48

Non humanoid robots are almost always more desirable

BleachedUnicornBHole 2026-01-29 18:50

The leftover Optimus robots are going to get a prosthetic vagina and turned into sex bots.

kahner 2026-01-29 18:52

and what's your view today?

HeadPaleontologist40 2026-01-29 18:55

They can’t even get autonomous driving to function but will make functioning bipedal all purpose robots? How does anyone actually believe this?

DisaffectedLShaw 2026-01-29 18:56

And if a small child or pet is next to it when this happens, also bring death.

HeadPaleontologist40 2026-01-29 18:56

Lies and stock are the only thing Tesla sells now.

FlexFanatic 2026-01-29 18:56

Musk is just gonna hire people and put them in suits like they’re robots.

[deleted] 2026-01-29 18:56

[deleted]

etaoin314 2026-01-29 18:57

same as it ever was...

Outrageous_Koala5381 2026-01-29 19:01

The stock already is at a PE of about 300. hich is about 10-20x what it should be based on most metrics. A company that earned less money and less revenue than last year.

kaninkanon 2026-01-29 19:03

They’re shutting down model s and x production because they don’t sell. Optimus is a cover story.

Darryl_Lict 2026-01-29 19:05

You are extremely optimistic. The Model S and X were only 3% of Tesla's total production.

torokunai 2026-01-29 19:07

I think it’s 50-50 Tesla pivots to robotaxi by 2030. Margins could be good but I have no grip on the TAM

praguer56 2026-01-29 19:08

Oh, then it now makes complete sense that he'll shutter the Fremont factory making S and X cars to focus on Optimus. Yeah, now I get it. /s

Fun-Crow6284 2026-01-29 19:18

He is selling the bots to SpaceX & spacex launch these expensive high quality premium products to Mars Easy fat free scam money!

dogmatum-dei 2026-01-29 19:21

We all f'n despise him, but objectively (lol, if any of us can be), is there really a market for his stupid robot? This sounds like another kick the can down the road shiny object,, balls still in the air grift. Seriously, what's the market for Optimus?

locka99 2026-01-29 19:23

Would be pretty funny if they were, with each being remote controlled by some poor bastard pretending they're automated.

hobbbis 2026-01-29 19:23

Surprise!

locka99 2026-01-29 19:24

Well it might be eventually. And when it is I am 1000% certain that it will not in any way live up to the bullshit and lies that Musk will spend the many years prior making about it. It will cost 2x as much, it'll have terrible battery life and it will suck at the most basic of tasks like walking through a door or picking up things. Shares will jump I'm sure.

FreshLiterature 2026-01-29 19:24

It's already a flop EVEN IF he actually meets a deadline for once. Why? Because Optimus is the same bullshit humanoid robot that a couple different Chinese firms are already gearing up to start selling. Elon thinks he's going to just copy a Chinese product, wrap it in the Tesla brand, and nobody is going to notice. That's his whole plan. Model S? Cut. Model X? Cut. Cybertruck? Flop. Semi? Flop.

toumei64 2026-01-29 19:27

I'm pretty sure it would actually use less ketamine, hallucinate less, and lie less, and it could be bullied into being less stupid.

emergencyexit 2026-01-29 19:32

Who would have thought the human body was not the optimal design for .. well anything really? We're a bunch of monkeys evolved from shrews or whatever the fuck. We can adapt our limited bodies using our comparatively incredible brains. Absolute dipshit move to copy the bodies and lose the brains.

toumei64 2026-01-29 19:33

The wealthy investors will just sue again and end up getting whatever money is left while all of the gullible cultists at the bottom will be left holding the bag.

TerranOPZ 2026-01-29 19:33

He claimed it in investor materials. I guess fraud doesn't matter.

SeaworthinessSad8892 2026-01-29 19:33

.... So he's ending production of 2 cars he can sell to produce robots that currently do nothing.   Stock to the moooooooon!!!!!!!

toumei64 2026-01-29 19:39

It's so crazy how people just keep believing all of this bullshit. Even if Tesla achieved volume production of this humanoid robot in a year or two, there's no one to sell it to. This is just the next smoke and mirrors act to keep the investors interested who know nothing about it but like the idea, just like all the other outrageous claims.

steveu33 2026-01-29 19:40

Wait, if we put an Optimus in the driver’s seat maybe it will fully self-drive! Sell two products at once, genius!

TryIsntGoodEnough 2026-01-29 19:45

Musk claims he is dedicating an entire factory to the production of these things ... You saying he is lying?!?! Or potentially that they are shutting down that factory

TryIsntGoodEnough 2026-01-29 19:45

How can it trip when it cant even bend its waist?!?!

TryIsntGoodEnough 2026-01-29 19:46

Or they are shutting down that factory but don't want that to dominate the headlines

TryIsntGoodEnough 2026-01-29 19:47

Idk about that, starlink is having some serious issues which they aren't being forthcoming about

Kind_Dream_610 2026-01-29 19:49

Musk made a claim, which would benefit his companies and himself personally, and it wasn't true... you don't say

lump77777 2026-01-29 19:50

I worked in an IBM warehouse during college in the 1990’s. We had robots doing a lot of the work, but they were all specialized for different tasks. Elon is not only wrong, he’s also 40 years behind the robotics market.

GlumExternal 2026-01-29 19:59

The majority of spaceX launches are paid for by spaceX Their R&D budget for spaceship is immense They can never stop launching starlink satellites because they don't last very long in low orbit. I do not understand how they are making any money. an IPO at 1.5 trillion just seems insane to me

Pineapplepizzaracoon 2026-01-29 20:01

Yeah why sell the product when stock goes up on the promise and hope of it. Cant be dealing with another cybertruck fail

EmphasisFrosty3093 2026-01-29 20:08

Why should operational issues impact an IPO or general valuation?

TryIsntGoodEnough 2026-01-29 20:13

Because if the system is failing, it means the profitability is much lower than originally thought and the valuation is adjusted.

GlumExternal 2026-01-29 20:17

Disclosure, I studied robotics and automation, but have worked in other engineering fields so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt. I don't see a big market. You won't have robots and people working in the same space, no safety team is signing off on that. So we have robot only operations, now which is better a walking robot that has limited weight and battery, or an automated forklift with a giant battery and higher weight. In terms of accuracy, it will not be more accurate that an industrial 6dof arm. You will not use it for welding, or precise placement, you just won't. The same action over and over has no reason for a general purpose robotic. In the domestic space, you'll get some very rich people buying them and then realising it's just a creepy guy in their house who can't actually help them because it doesn't know anything.

lithiumdeuteride 2026-01-29 20:18

Comedic value is value nonetheless.

EmphasisFrosty3093 2026-01-29 20:20

Yes, but if revenue and profits are down that's good. Gravity has no power here.

zedk47 2026-01-29 20:41

Impossible. Elon never lies.

Sweetlittle66 2026-01-29 20:54

These days it's better to talk about an amazing product that doesn't exist than make and sell one that is just Ok.

AustrianMichael 2026-01-29 21:04

Sales, especially in Europe, for the S and X are horrible. They’re about the same as Lotus or Lucid in Germany. IIRC first half of 2025 it was something like 60 cars. In Germany. One of the richest and biggest car markets in the world.

Altruistic_Pitch_157 2026-01-29 21:05

Seems like every demo of humanoid robots involves them putting things in boxes or moving boxes. If there were better use cases they would show them. I'm sure there is some market for general purpose boxing and stacking but it's not large enough to carry the bloat of Teslas stock price. If Tesla were a true robotics company making custom-built non-humanoid robot solutions it might be a different story. Their biggest product continues to be hype.

Individual-Mud262 2026-01-29 21:17

Strangely, the economics of it force him to lie. If he stops lying, he’ll go bankrupt.

Simple-Fault-9255 2026-01-29 21:24

*This post has been permanently removed. The author used [Redact](https://redact.dev/home) to delete it, and the reason may relate to privacy, security, data harvesting prevention, or personal choice.* unwritten cooing consist important automatic hospital ghost birds subsequent encouraging

Lacrewpandora 2026-01-29 21:34

Chuckle.

Lacrewpandora 2026-01-29 21:35

Tesla will take this a step further - capital raise incoming this year, I'm sure.

Lacrewpandora 2026-01-29 21:39

I don't think SpaceX's $1.5 trillion valuation has anything at all to do with mundane things like "profitability". Revenue estimates are $15 billion. SpaceX is the Music Man goes to Mars.

jatufin 2026-01-29 21:40

You could give it a pair of scissors and ask it to cut your hair. It may cut your throat instead, but that's the risk an early adopter should be willing to take.

Charming-Tea644 2026-01-29 22:12

His karma's so bad don't touch anything ELON

thebaldfox 2026-01-29 22:32

Less overhead of course.

ddr1ver 2026-01-29 22:33

People are ready to line up to buy a $30k robot that can’t do anything useful.

appmapper 2026-01-29 22:33

Mainly compare the Atlas to Optimus, and it becomes clear just how far behind Tesla is in robotics.

ddr1ver 2026-01-29 22:34

Tesla stock doesn’t respond to making money or actually selling stuff. It responds to wildly optimistic Musk posts about how great everything will be next quarter.

the_zero 2026-01-29 22:34

Dependable, proven to work, and task-specific. Most importantly, they don’t move around on two legs for no damn reason.

thebaldfox 2026-01-29 22:35

Biggest welfare queen in the history of the world!

SkatesUp 2026-01-29 22:40

But 1000% they will be by the end of the year. /s

CRXCRZ 2026-01-29 23:21

this will be as useful as the nintendo robot.

Bubbagump210 2026-01-29 23:35

All he had to do is shut up and ride the wave. Improve the product line every year, then refreshes every 3 to 5 years. Hire a few smart people and let them work. Just be a grown-up. That’s all he had to do.

Overall_Curve6725 2026-01-29 23:42

Pathological liar

readit145 2026-01-30 00:06

I remember when they showed a few groups of employees the robots doing people’s jobs so they’d run around and tell us (the other employees) that we better be good at our jobs because the robots are going to replace us. And that’s the type of shit that’s illegal but Tesla still does and gets away with it. Rumors are not false advertising don’t forget.

FlipZip69 2026-01-30 00:21

It can not even wipe down a counter unless the counter was very predictable and they program for that. Showcasing a robot to promote your companies skills is not out of the question. Lots have done that. Suggesting you are going to sell these to the masses is simply lying. Hell making a self driving car with visual alone may be an easier task as at least the roads have some predicable rules. A house does not.

FlipZip69 2026-01-30 00:23

And you certainly do not make humanoid robots to begin.

FlipZip69 2026-01-30 00:25

We are designed to do a lot of things poorly. At the moment this robot can not wipe down a single counter unless that counter is highly predictable and they program for it specifically.

DisplacerBeastMode 2026-01-30 00:40

That is my biggest concern as well. One of these Tesla robots could easily accidentally crush someone's limbs or heads, or start a fire or a chemical spill, and not have the brains to understand what it did. I imagine one petting a puppy to death or spilling oil into something flammable

GWeb1920 2026-01-30 00:48

If you look at things like steal mills non-humanoid robots have automated humans out of jobs already an all that’s left is QC and a bit of material loading. Humans are good fo non standard tasks manufacturing at scale as already gotten rid of most of them.

Kor_Phaeron_ 2026-01-30 01:10

Especially since large warehouses already use AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) and ASRS (Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems). They don't need a humanoid robot, just because it looks humanoid. An AGV has it's shape because it's more effective for the task than a humanoid shape. And that's not groundbreaking technology. Large companies do this since the 80s. Who in his right mind sees this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJMkoWtcsv8 and thinks "Yeah, Optimus would make this thing more efficient."

Icy-person666 2026-01-30 01:26

Bigger question is Elon doing any useful work or just looking for women at tesla to be his next baby daddy?

All_Hail_Hynotoad 2026-01-30 01:38

And we will turn into a GIF for when things fail epically

practicaloppossum 2026-01-30 01:40

And, of course, there's no reason a robot needs to be humanoid to stack boxes. There's probably a market for robots to stock supermarket shelves, for example, but there's a whole list of reasons why a non-humanoid robot would be cheaper and more efficient at that task.

[deleted] 2026-01-30 01:54

Set it and forget it, haha actually fuck with it all the time is the reality... Having a moving robot knowing how bitchy stationary ones are lol

Beartrkkr 2026-01-30 02:35

Go on...

earthman34 2026-01-30 02:53

Tesla isn't actually a profitable company, even though they cook the books to make it seem like it is. They've sold huge amounts of vehicles to the government, to SpaceX, etc. to prop up revenue, as well as selling the carbon credits ***which they can't do any more.*** Musk will end production of the S and X models (which, while high-priced, probably aren't profitable in such small volumes), idle the factory, lay off the workers, and save money for the duration of the year while they "refit" it for Optimus production. It's a time-buying measure, since he ***has no clue*** how to resurrect the car business and actually, at this point, doesn't care about it.

earthman34 2026-01-30 02:59

Robots work great at repetitive high-precision tasks. They suck at random interactions in changing environments, simply because reductive digital logic isn't good at figuring out what to do when confronted with random events. This is why robots will never ***really*** replace people. Yeah, a robot can assemble a circuit board faster and more consistently that I can, but I bet it can't brush my cat without injuring it or the cat running away, nor can it cook a decent mac-n-cheese, fix a clogged sewer pipe, or change a tire on my car.

GarysCrispLettuce 2026-01-30 03:36

Nobody wants a robot in their home with eye cameras linked to the servers of a man who created the #1 CSAM manufacture & distribution tool in the world. That much must be obvious, even to children and dullards. I feel simultaneously bad for and amused by anyone stupid enough to invest their money with Musk based on his assertion that people are actually going to want these things around them.

BreenzyENL 2026-01-30 03:40

Cancel 2 car models to retrofit existing factories to manufacture a useless robot. Genius.

steampower77 2026-01-30 03:55

I think he’s on the government cheese from here on out.

Basement_Chicken 2026-01-30 04:05

P/E of 385.

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-30 04:05

That's all it will take to trip it, and yes people will be injured.

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-30 04:07

Full Self Delusion

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-30 04:08

The complexities of a humanoid robot would be far more than FSD, which they still haven't gotten right. They just keep doubling down on the bullshit.

BringBackUsenet 2026-01-30 04:08

Like the lack of revenue?

ThinkPath1999 2026-01-30 04:29

Wait, didn't Tesla JUST kill two models in the Tesla lineup, ostensibly to use the factories for making billions of robots? Considering Hyundai already has a working commercial model ready to be deployed beginning this year, and we've all seen the videos of Atlas' capabilities, I'd say Tesla probably won't be able to release Optimus for at least a couple of years.

Lonely-Corgi-983 2026-01-30 04:40

They hand out cookies

Glittering-Rise-488 2026-01-30 04:45

HaHaHa. Tesla is going to end up in bankruptcy. Teslatakedown has done WONDERS!!!!! CONGRATS ELEANOR MUSK!!

DrXaos 2026-01-30 05:01

The S and X were likely quite profitable because the fixed costs were already paid. Car models are always more profitable late in their run, and S and X are old. This robot business is a Musk delusion worse than the Metaverse fantasy.

DrXaos 2026-01-30 05:10

people were skeptical of Tesla valuation, as earnings have not grown into the valuations. the car business is doing poorly now and there is no plan at all to fix it, because CEO is bored of cars and won’t spend a cent to improve them substantially.

DrXaos 2026-01-30 05:11

substantially smaller than their car business. His own people have done the numbers and presented it to him but he didn’t like it. They didn’t want Musk to cancel the new car model but he did.

NoApartheidOnMars 2026-01-30 05:24

Humanoid robots are a waste in factories. Cars are still built on assembly lines. You want robots that are built specifically for the one task they perform. A humanoid robot is far more complex with more articulations, most of which it will never use when performing that one task. Plus it's constrained by its humanoid shape. Humanoids are "general purpose". They can do a lot but none of it really really well. Factory robots are built to perform their task in the most efficient way possible. They can perform movements that a humanoid robot couldn't perform or not as fast / as well A guy who claims he knows more about manufacturing than anybody else in the world should have figured that out. already.

mythorus 2026-01-30 05:48

I think with O-HW 4 it will get fully autonomous on a $ 999,- monthly subscription.

Bancai 2026-01-30 06:22

Can i get my brother in law subscribed to these kind of news? How could i get it so it comes from a difference email acount each time?

burner9752 2026-01-30 06:23

This isn’t actually true… they just aren’t actually replacing humans. They are doing jobs that would be done by conveyors systems and other things, but with more versatility. Toyota is implementing some right now… but again, very simple tasks that do not replace workers.

Disastrous-Debt-8698 2026-01-30 07:01

Still, the potential is insane. Models are now being trained to understand the physical world something LLMs are notoriously bad at. That’s exactly why robots today are limited to narrow, specialized tasks using older ML techniques.But while people here are busy complaining and mocking it, they’ll eventually have a fucking robot cooking dinner for them in 3/4 years

neonmantis 2026-01-30 07:26

old people too. my weighted blanket has a big warning on it saying don't let old people use it or they'll get trapped under it.

neonmantis 2026-01-30 07:28

It will be the semi approach with Pepsi where they find some company who is happy to get a bit of a PR boost but will be under extremely strict NDAs. Put some to work flailing about in their own factories too and then just drag out that charade for as long as possible.

Effective_Drummer542 2026-01-30 07:29

Well put, my first real laugh in a while!

neonmantis 2026-01-30 07:31

What vehicles have they sold directly to government? Don't think there is any significant volume there. Nor do I think they can bury them in SpaceX government contracts easily, I get funding from the US gov, there are line by line expenditures for specific items you need to adhere to and they will happily refuse to pay for stuff given the chance. All bets are off with Trump but I don't think he is desperate to throw money at Musk either, he won't have forgiven him.

neonmantis 2026-01-30 07:35

> This is why robots will never really replace people For dangerous (well paying) jobs they will even if they don't have all the capabilities of humans. Plenty of military examples have existed for years and are only growing. Robots may not be able to change the wheel on your car but you can get a quadped or a drone that can identify people and autonomously kill them. Shout out to the Campaign to Ban Killer Robots.

neonmantis 2026-01-30 07:37

What's the alternative at this point. Say the board were actually independent and mildly competent, and wanted to ditch Musk, they couldn't because they know the stock price would instantly collapse, which would be a failure of their fiduciary duty to shareholders. There's no getting off the ponzi ride until it crashes and burns.

neonmantis 2026-01-30 07:39

> SpaceX is the Music Man goes to Mars. Yeah but by going public they create all kinds of public disclosures and responsibilities they've been able to hide away before. Musk openly doesn't want that.

neonmantis 2026-01-30 07:43

> Who would have thought the human body was not the optimal design for .. well anything really? Middle distance running thanks to the ability to sweat. Our hands are pretty elite too.

FlipZip69 2026-01-30 07:43

Not a chance in hell. The complexity of a home with no predictability is far far beyond current capabilities. At the moment they can not get a robot to wipe a counter down. This is a factor more complex than self driving. Road have well defined rules and that is a challenge. There is pretty much an unlimited number of rules needed to act within a house. Possibly in 20-30 years we may have some useful humanoid robot. But there is nothing on the horizon other than we have the mechanic figured out.

neonmantis 2026-01-30 07:53

Eh, I don't think it is the ideal comparison. Atlas isn't trying to be a consumer product. Compare it to Toyota's ASIMO from 25 years ago which was more useful than Optimus is today.

neonmantis 2026-01-30 07:54

Nah Grok can be pretty based and calls out Musk pretty regularly (where he hasn't hard coded it).

SnooShortcuts700 2026-01-30 07:54

Tesla is creating market and use the same playback of FSD is coming. This will be enough for fanboys to bite

Sp1keSp1egel 2026-01-30 07:55

> It's not going to flop, because it's not going to be for sale. Like the SEMI?

earthman34 2026-01-30 08:16

They said that 50 years ago, and they still can't make a robot that can vacuum the fucking floor right. AI creates images of people with 3 legs and 6 fingers. Waymos run through school bus stoplights every day. Teslas drive their owners into guardrails and kill them. Give me a break. Every level of increased complexity creates that many more potential error paths. That's why software is buggier than ever. They never fix most of the bugs before just releasing a new version with a new set of bugs. Cars and appliances are becoming less and less reliable due to increasing complexity, to the point many of them are unrepairable. There's literally no market for what he claims Optimus will supposedly do. I don't need a robot to clean my house or mow my lawn. I certainly wouldn't pay 50k for one. I don't want a fucking robot lurking around watching me. Never in a billion years would I trust a shitty company like Tesla with that access. Humanoid robots are a stupid idea. They've always been a stupid idea. The human body is the result of random evolution that went wrong in a million ways. Why would we try to duplicate that?

emergencyexit 2026-01-30 08:22

Great calls there for sure. I run a lot so don't know how I forgot that. Pretty fond of using my hands too!

Enough-Meaning1514 2026-01-30 08:24

But it is just around the corner... Stock goes up 5%, media outlets declare Musk beat the market expectations...

earthman34 2026-01-30 08:28

I don't think they ever really will, though, because the human brain is a morass of random impulses, partial memories, snap decisions, and completely subjective experiences and viewpoints. So much of what we do is driven by abstract thought processes and intuitive choices that can't be broken down to logical steps. I've been told I make the most perfect mac-n-cheese, but I have no recipe for it. I don't measure the ingredients. I just do it, off the cuff, and it works. How would a robot duplicate that? How is a robot supposed to taste and smell? How would a robot know when a hamburger or an egg is cooked just right, when a few seconds one way or the other is critical? I'd love to see a robot do even the most mundane shit like unplug a clogged sink, or press a suit jacket without fucking it up. How about cleaning up cat barf, or shoveling snow off a deck? How about waxing and detailing a car, or changing the oil? Completely mundane shit that has no consistent repeatable task to learn? LOL.

earthman34 2026-01-30 08:43

I think they sold the entire back inventory of Cybertrucks to the military and SpaceX.

earthman34 2026-01-30 08:52

A vehicle can be profitable on a per-unit basis, that doesn’t mean production is amortized. Chevy built 2 million Vegas and never made a dime on them. The engine casting plant alone cost $250 million in 1970 dollars. Companies like Ferrari and Lamborghini built some of the most expensive production cars of their time and were constantly bankrupt for decades.

DisaffectedLShaw 2026-01-30 10:39

Oh my god, I just realised I forget that old people exist… I’m subconsciously ageist

neonmantis 2026-01-30 12:39

Call your grandma, it will make her week

neonmantis 2026-01-30 12:40

I'm sceptical on the military sales. What evidence is there for that?

After-Cartoonist-157 2026-01-30 12:47

Yes, but that was the old Grok, who would have had the ability to lead a company better than Elon, but I think the current Grok will be worse than Elon.

neonmantis 2026-01-30 13:30

They can never hard code enough to cover all of Musk's uninformed / propaganda nonsense. I think this is where the rip off of Wikipedia is meant to come in but that is a massive undertaking

Iamcheez 2026-01-30 13:38

how anybody still believes anything this guy says is beyond me..

Lacrewpandora 2026-01-30 14:10

My theory: SpaceX will divorce from its largest customer - itself. They'll carve off Starlink before the IPO and Starlink can pay obscenely high fees to SpaceX for launches and monitoring the satellites to obscure the real financial situation. Musk can fund this opaque operation with some skim off the top of the $20 billion he just raised for xAI and the $50 billion he'll get in the SpaceX IPO. I call it the SpaceX and xAI buying Cybertrucks model of circulating dollars through Musk's companies.

DisaffectedLShaw 2026-01-30 14:14

One died before I was born, my other biological one is cut off from my mum, and my step one was actually family. Unfortunately the last time I saw her she was 3 years ago and she was dead… (We were really close, and I was one of the four in her will ask to carry her coffin ❤️)

neonmantis 2026-01-30 14:16

All the best to you, dude

2Guns23 2026-01-30 16:21

I have worked in automotive manufacturing as an engineer for 15 years.  There is no possible use for this product.  It is 100% pure hopium.  If what you are making is so easy and unimportant that an Optimus robot can do it, the company would be 10x better off building it in Mexico.

After-Cartoonist-157 2026-01-30 16:47

Sip Grokipedia is basically a way to change the narrative about Elon.

herewego199209 2026-01-30 16:57

Has to be. Only silicon valley bros and influencers will be able to afford those fucking things. DOA.

herewego199209 2026-01-30 16:59

Listen I never thought in a million fucking years the Cybertruck was gonna ship\[ because I never thought US regulators would allow something like that to be on the streets. So its never say never with Tesla, but I'm 60/40 on this thing being vaporware or just having a limited run where people like Kim Kardashian and Logan Paul only get one.

Dadd_io 2026-01-30 18:37

I have thought this for years lol. Instead he dies the salute and backs a candidate his buyers hate who cuts all the tax credits supporting his business.

RosieDear 2026-01-30 18:50

I wonder how even ONE person believes what Elon says. Then I look at the White House and I understand everything. There are even SOME otherwise intelligent people who buy the BS....just as with the cars, they actually believe the "super tech" is in Elons lab and one day he will trot it out and we will all be amazed. They are addicted to the "possible reveal" to a unhealthy degree. The truth, in life and physics, is that if you want to see some of the future - look at the Now and the Past. OK, so Optimus = combo of FSD and the Roadster and people on Mars this decade.

bd1223 2026-01-30 20:48

Serious question: Why in the world would anyone actually want an Optimus robot? Other than a very expensive novelty toy, how would it actually benefit someone?

czguris 2026-01-30 21:12

I thought they were remote operated at the diner to serve fries and popcorn

snackerooryan 2026-01-30 22:23

How exactly will these take care of aging grandparents again?

earthman34 2026-01-31 00:26

The Air Force is evaluating them right now for a potential buy. DHS originally budgeted $400 million for a buy, but haven't awarded a contract yet. They removed the Tesla brand from the line item, but since it's for "armored electric vehicles", it's pretty obvious what that was intended to be. Elon has tried to push them on police forces, but so far only the Las Vegas PD is using 10 donated ones in an evaluation. SpaceX has already purchased over a thousand.

Crutchduck 2026-01-31 01:11

Thank god he bought the US government so absolutely nothing with be done about his fraudulent claims.

neonmantis 2026-01-31 03:32

I get he will be trying but the military industrial complex is the one thing that nobody challenges - not DOGE, not Trump. Also a blackhole of money. I remember the original order and then them removing the line but no evidence it has happened as yet anyway.

neonmantis 2026-01-31 03:40

It's much more than just that. They cite Kremlin propaganda regularly on their sourcing for the articles about the war in Ukraine. The Gaza genocide is heavily sanitised etc.

After-Cartoonist-157 2026-01-31 03:40

Kremlin propaganda? But I thought Elon worked for the US government.

Teembeau 2026-01-31 05:06

No. Because Tesla sales are falling. The pattern is promise things, but before you fail to deliver you jump off that onto another thing for the future. My guess is that the next thing will be the promise of all the benefits of a Tesla/SpaceX merger.

Teembeau 2026-01-31 05:22

Part of the thing with Tesla is tapping into what excites people. It's a lot like those sorts of "Tomorrowland" things. "Soon, within our lifetime, we'll all be in space". Or flying cars. Anyone who knows a bit about the subjects thinks "why does anyone want to generally go to space" or "how much energy does a flying car need"? Dreams don't always fit with reality. We saw Rosey the Robot or Jarvis from fiction and people love the idea of them. Of course, we didn't get Rosey the Robot. We got dishwashers, Cuisinart and ready prepared meals. AI is just too unreliable. All this self-driving car stuff still needs a team of people monitoring the cars. You're safe inside one, but I don't believe that these are a good idea in terms of pedestrians.

Bubbagump210 2026-01-31 11:52

10 years ago they weren’t. All he had to do was shut up and build a company

Teembeau 2026-01-31 12:16

Even without all that stuff, Tesla were not going to last beyond being a niche manufacturer. As soon as electric crossed a certain threshold as a technology, lots of the existing players were going to get involved. Consumers are conservative about car brands and unless your cars are a lot better they won't switch. It took Toyota a long time after they were better than GM to go past them.

PMoonbeam 2026-01-31 12:20

That whole earning's call was absolute cringe.

KnightBlindness 2026-01-31 12:38

They’re already talking about having a merger with SpaceX or xAI so that should be a good way to confuse investors. How do you value a car/robot/ai/rocket company? Oh yeah, I forgot to put solar in there.

Nameless11911 2026-01-31 14:07

He’s in the Epstein files

R3luctant 2026-01-31 16:31

The thing is, SpaceX is actually worth something and all of the shell game stuff has to happen before it goes public because even with the likely fraudulent accounting that occurs, there is no way investors would vote to merge or acquire those other companies.

Islandbimmer 2026-01-31 22:45

He also claimed he never went to Little St James Island that’s because an email he sent to Jeffrey begging him to being able to attend a wild party with girls, Epstein denied him

Mangafan_20 2026-02-01 05:28

Even Musk admitting Optimus is a scam would make the stock go high, wtf is going on.

neonmantis 2026-02-02 04:09

Late stage capitalism. Consolidation is peak. Power and wealth is concentrated into so few hands that they can manipulate markets in their interest. And in a capitalist society, money equals power, and that money has captured democratic institutions and now controls those in their interest too. We're basically in a neo-feudal society but it is disguised by the illusion of competition and mitigated by technological progress.

neonmantis 2026-02-02 04:09

Vulnerable people exist. We have laws to protect them from exploitation.

After-Cartoonist-157 2026-02-02 04:14

Wow! I'd like to know who the architect of this Neo-feudal era is?

neonmantis 2026-02-02 04:34

It is simply the result of barely constrained capitalism over time. There doesn't need to be a single architect, it is systemic. The systems in place to prevent consolidation like the FTC in the US that has the power to break up monopolies have been captured and neutralised and the same has happened in most of the world. Throw in globalisation that enables these monolithic corporations to get even bigger and more powerful means that they can bully entire countries and warp them in their interest - See Ireland and Google or Nigeria and Shell as two random examples. Capitalism consolidates wealth. What do you think is the result of that on a decent enough timeline without active and regular intervention?

After-Cartoonist-157 2026-02-02 04:44

I honestly think we're screwed, and in the long run, we'll be even more screwed.

neonmantis 2026-02-02 05:08

We've had two centuries of spectacular productivity gains first with mechanisation, then automation, the internet, and now AI. Each one of those things have generated additional wealth as we are more efficient but rather than delivering a second renaissance where we all lounge around in our pants making art, instead all of those gains have been gobbled up by giant corporations and hyper rich individuals. The luddites were not protesting about technology but about how it would be used to disenfranchise workers and enrich the ownership class. 200 years later and that problem is increasingly apparent but again kinda hidden because of sub-brands and opaque structures as well as most media being in their hands too. It does seem like we're kinda screwed absent some major change, yeah.

tangouniform2020 2026-02-02 05:30

I’m 70 and I can, umph, ugh, get out, unh, oh, give an old guy a hand?

Opposite-Chemistry-0 2026-02-02 07:52

A humanoid robot, alpha version of anything useful. Thats gonna raise Tesla stocks sky high and also sell worse than the truck and cause massive deficit

AustinBike 2026-02-02 16:01

I disagree. There are so many places in the world where we need to protect the vulnerable, but in the case of Tesla, the numbers have not matched for a LONG time. There have been enough critics that, at this point, if someone loses money, they are not doing their due diligence. This is not like Worldcom or Enron where the deceit was all under the covers. This is very, very public. There have been years of commitments that the company made and never fulfilled. If someone loses money, this late into all of the public disclosures, it is really on them.

neonmantis 2026-02-02 16:17

> they are not doing their due diligence. Yes, because, again, vulnerable people exist. Pig butchering scams were estimated to have generated $2.5bn last year. In the US, 21% of people are legitimately functionally illiterate, and can scarcely navigate the world. Yes there are lots of people who are capable and not doing their due dilligence, and fuck them, but there are also a chunk of people who don't know any better and lack the tools to effectively understand what is happening.

ResortMain780 2026-02-02 16:29

You are saying optimus might be a hit then?

ResortMain780 2026-02-02 16:36

Give credit where its due, spacex are launching falcon 9s and reusing boosters as if its child's play. Its not like it doesnt cost them anything to launch starlink sats, but clearly its quite profitable and for now, they dont really have any competition. I expect that will change within the next 5-ish years if the chinese get their act together, and/or some of the wannabee competitors like Blue Origin or Rocket labs also get a mostly-reusable rocket. 1.5 trillion is insane, but at least spacex is actually quite a profitable company thats ahead of everyone else. Unlike tesla.

ResortMain780 2026-02-02 16:44

Depends how you interpret "all purpose". its not like they will be able to do everything (or even much) fresh off the assembly line, but it might be possible to teach them many simple tasks and many more tasks could be done remote. There is a market for this, even if I suspect its only a tiny fraction of musks predictions. The two real questions I have is if bipedal robots will be the best solution, and if they will catch up with the chinese who currently seem significantly ahead in both hard- and software.

AustinBike 2026-02-02 16:44

The Tesla situation is not like pig butchering. If the pig butcher said “I am not a beautiful woman but a guy in a prison in Myanmar” and the person still sent them money then it would be similar. Please stop trying to conflate a company with plenty of negative analyst data that is very public with a scam that involves deceit. The EV market is growing. Tesla is shrinking both revenue and market share, the signs are very visible.

neonmantis 2026-02-02 17:07

Your argument here is that vulnerable people never have investments in the stock market? Literally no one is remotely arguing about whether Tesla is a basket case, it is.

Chris_0288 2026-02-04 15:46

So, is the plan that Optimus will use Tesla derived AI? Or XAi derived AI? If the former, why are they developing two different things? If the latter, will Tesla then "buy" the "usage" of the AI from SpaceX/XAI? Further inflating the revenue of "SpaceXAi". I assume SpaceX will then be touted as a major purchaser of the robot for massive production of starships, thus continuing the cycle of cash between the companies. Stocks will jump etc etc Full disclosure, I am asking this question out of curiosity what people might think this absolute cretins plan is, can't stand musk and I fully think Optimus will flop.

JabbahScorpii 2026-03-03 22:39

I think the idea is that it would be like C3PO in Star Wars, except he doesn't really do anything that useful and most of the major things are done by his non-humanoid companion....

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