The Tesla recruitment presentation concluded Thursday night with a person wearing a white suit and their head covered in black robot-like armor walking onto the dark stage. The person started to Charleston, as techno music played. The person ran man. The person smiled and waggled their shoulders. It's all good. Thanks, CEO Elon Musk. The freestyle ended 40 seconds too soon.
He joked that the person was a robot named Tesla Bot or Optimus by Musk. Musk said that the robot's eternal optimista prototype will eventually perform repetitive, dangerous, and boring tasks. Musk stated that the robot would employ the same advanced artificial intelligence technology as its cars, but they will only be able to perform simple tasks like changing lanes or navigating parking lots. Musk explained that the robot would have significant economic implications. He then got to the point.
Thursday's AI Day presentation was broadcast live on the internet from Palo Alto. It featured all the trappings that have been associated with primetime Tesla spectacles like large crowds, free flowing alcohol and plenty of lighting gels. AI Day was intended for geeks, those who may be involved in the company's technology work. The whole event was like a job fair. Andrej Karpathy, Tesla AI director, was already deep into the talk that is usually reserved for corporate conference rooms and university classrooms. He had also shown a schematic of a neural network on screen by minute 2. Another slide, which was just after the robots' debut, made the message clearer, pointing to a website where engineers could apply for a job. Even though the show ended at 11:59 ET, close to one million people watched it on Tesla's YouTube channel.
AI Day could have been called the ur-Tesla Event. It combines innovative technology and the outrageous goofiness of a robot suit wearer, hyping a product that will not exist for some time. The combination will allow Tesla to tackle one of its most difficult tasks: finding AI engineers in a crowded market.
Past promises made in previous presentations have been forgotten. Musk stated that Tesla would have 1 million robotaxis by 2020, more than two years ago. Tesla's cars can't drive themselves, and the technology relies on humans to monitor the actions of the vehicles on the road. Musk stated that a new, cutting-edge battery, which was first revealed at last September's Battery Day, has been slowing down production and might not be ready for the launch of the Model Y later in this year. This could delay Tesla's promises of cost reductions and the long-held dream of a $25,000 electric vehicle.
Federal regulators opened a preliminary investigation into Autopilot, Tesla's controversial advanced driving aid feature. This presentation did not mention it. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there have been at least 11 instances in which Teslas using Autopilot crashed into vehicles on roads. One person was killed and 17 were injured. According to the company's driver manual, the system might not stop stationary vehicles. Experts state that these systems are designed to detect moving objects and not stationary ones. This is partly to prevent false positives that could lead to abrupt stops. It is possible that more than 700,000.00 Model S, X, or Y will be affected if the recall is ordered.
