Elon Musk recently decided that Tesla is not a car company. It’s a robotics company, and the cars are simply there to pay the bills until folks start spending literally infinite money on bipedal robots. Essentially, Musk has bet Tesla’s future on this one slow robot — and it seems that robot is having trouble keeping up with the competition.
At the recent World Robot Conference in Beijing, myriad companies showed up with bots in tow. Robots were making food, playing instruments, even challenging kids at board games. Tesla, however, did nothing of the sort — instead leaving Optimus trapped behind glass.
Based on video from the event, the World Robot Conference appeared to be full of various demos from robots showing off what they could do. CNBC had a reporter on the show floor, who backed up that interpretation:
While Chinese companies last week showed off humanlike robots playing the zither or grabbing sodas, Tesla displayed its Optimus humanoid inside a clear box, motionless next to its cars.
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Compared to last year, the number and kinds of demos at the World Robot Conference increased significantly, [Wei Cao, partner at robotics investment firm Lanchi Ventures] said, noting that many students and young people also attended.
It’s not clear why Tesla decided not to do a demo, given the company’s eagerness to show off Optimus on social. It’s easy to assume the bot simply couldn’t compete side by side with its competitors, but the answer isn’t necessarily so sweet. Trade show logistics are complicated, and it’s entirely possible that setting up a demo simply wasn’t feasible within the time Tesla had to prepare. After all, it’s not like the company has any kind of PR department that could handle these things.