The second annual Tesla AI Day will be held on Friday, September 30, after delaying the event for a month. In a June 2 tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the event originally set on August 19 would be pushed back with the hope of its Optimus robot would be working by then.
The Tesla AI Day is an event in which Tesla showcases their latest technology, such as the humanoid robot that Musk first introduced last year and is estimated to be launched next year. It will start around 5 p.m. PT, while remote viewers can watch it live-streamed on Tesla's YouTube channel or its website. Here's what to expect during the event this Friday.
The Tesla Bot is on display at the Tesla Giga Texas manufacturing facility during the "Cyber Rodeo" grand opening party on April 7, 2022, in Austin, Texas.
Tesla Bot, a.k.a. Optimus
Musk said during the last Tesla AI Day that his company is now venturing into making a humanoid robot. He said that Tesla Bot, also known as Optimus, would be "friendly" with "human-level hands" as well as "autopilot cameras" for eyes and a "full self-driving computer" that acts as the brain, The Verge reported.
The robot would measure 5'8'' in height and weigh 125 pounds, carrying up to 45 pounds using its human-level hands. Musk noted that Optimus has the potential to be more significant than the Tesla car and would be in every home in the next ten years.
Tesla is now on a hiring spree for motor and actuator designers and engineers for its robotics department; it has declared Optimus its top priority. Musk has even told his Autopilot team to focus on Optimus to meet the current deadline.
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Autopilot and FSD
But besides Optimus, experts also believe that new technology for self-driving vehicles will be introduced. "We believe FSD has seen a number of hurdles, and this AI day is an important event to convince the Street this strategy is heading in the right direction," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told Investor's Business Daily.
FSD stands for Full Self-Driving technology that is categorized as driver assistance. If necessary, Tesla requires a human to pay attention to take over from the car's computer. But FSD is an advanced Tesla driver assistance technology called Autopilot that only works on freeways.
Musk's company has struggled for years to complete and deliver this technology to its customers, but in recent months, it has opened an FSD beta program to drivers who earn high safety scores based on the monitoring of behavior features in the Tesla car.
Musk released the software update to a larger number of customers this month, in which 160,000 FSD beta testers were chosen. He also said that the FSD Beta version 10.69.3, due in October, "brings step-change improvements."
Robotaxi
Last April, Musk said that this year will be the year of scaling up while 2023 will be a year with a "massive wave of new products." He mentioned that time, the "quite futuristic robotaxi" would be purpose-built for autonomy.
That means it will be a vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals, according to Yahoo! News. He added that it would also offer riders the lowest cost per mile of any other transport and cheaper than a subsidized bus ticket.
The concept for Tesla robotaxi has been announced since 2016 when Musk came out with his Master Plan Part Deux. Tesla's CEO imagines a Tesla Network taxi service that would allow Tesla car owners to use their vehicles to generate income on their behalf while at work or on vacation.
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