Telsa’s Optimus bot can now navigate by itself

Investing.com — Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) released a video on Thursday showing the progress its Optimus robot prototypes are making in moving independently.

The clip, which lasts just under 90 seconds, was posted on Elon Musk’s X platform (formerly Twitter).

In the video, Tesla’s Optimus is shown walking around a factory floor. The company says the robot can now “explore unseen spaces autonomously.”

The Optimus can also avoid people and obstacles “using neural nets running on its computer,” according to Tesla, adding it captures virtual cues specific to its environment.

Furthermore, the video shows the Tesla Optimus finding and walking to a charging station, docking itself, carrying a tray of batteries, and scaling stairs. Bloomberg reported that Musk personally approved the video.

Tesla adds that Optimus can also now pick up significant payloads, with the battery tray in the video said to weigh 11kg.

The clip ends with the robot handing out bottled drinks and bags of popcorn to people queued at a stand.

The clip comes days after a Bloomberg report that said Tesla “used humans to remotely control some capabilities,” at its “We, Robot” event.

Bloomberg noted that Milan Kovac, who now oversees the Optimus program, acknowledged on X that the prototypes at the event were human-assisted “to some extent.”