Should Elon Musk be worried? This Tesla Optimus Rival Is Back
Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot, Atlas, is back again with a warm-up video that has amassed over 716,000 views on X, formerly Twitter at the time of writing.
What Happened: On Thursday, Boston Dynamics took to X to share a video of Atlas doing push-ups saying, “Atlas doing a quick warm up before work.”
Atlas doing a quick warm up before work. pic.twitter.com/p33tZbgNsY
— Boston Dynamics (@BostonDynamics) August 22, 2024
Later, a user on X shared the video asking, “What happened to its hands,” considering in the video the Atlas’ hands appear to be more like stumps. In response, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said, “Great hands are the hardest part.”
Great hands are the hardest part
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2024
Boston Dynamics’ advanced robots, known for their high mobility and sleek design, have consistently drawn attention.
A previous video, released on YouTube in December 2020, featuring Atlas and the dog-like robot Spot dancing and backflipping to the song “Do You Love Me?” has garnered over 41 million views.
In the comment section of the latest video, some people raised concerns about the startup building robots. In October 2022, Boston Dynamics along with five other companies signed an open letter pledging not to weaponize general-purpose robots.
Why It Matters: The impressive capabilities of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Robot have not gone unnoticed by industry experts. In May 2024, AI researcher and MIT scientist Lex Fridman praised the Atlas along with Tesla’s Optimus.
Tesla, which has also ventured into the realm of humanoid robots, announced the Optimus project in 2021. Previously, the tech mogul stated that Optimus could serve as a companion, babysitter for children, or do chores at factories.
At Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in June, Musk also predicted that in the future, there will be at least one humanoid robot for every person on the planet, suggesting a potential humanoid robot population of 10 billion or more.
The EV giant is also reportedly seeking to hire employees to wear a motion capture suit and VR headset to train Optimus in human movements.