Musk says robot, aimed for 2023, will be worth more than Tesla’s car business

Musk says the company's robot will be worth more than the car business.

The full self-driving system is called the FSD and uses cameras and computer vision technology to perform some driving tasks. The cost of an FSD subscription is $12,000 per year.

The executive shared during the company's first-quarter earnings call that the company is still working on its robot. During the first Artificial Intelligence Day, Optimus was first introduced. Musk envisions the robot performing tasks that can be described as human drudgery, such as grocery shopping and other everyday tasks.

The only thing we have seen of the bot concept is a person in a white spandex jumpsuit.

At the Austin gigafactory opening, Musk said a new wave of products will be introduced in 2023.

Musk said on Wednesday's earnings call that he was surprised that people didn't know the magnitude of the program. Those who are insightful or listening carefully will know that the car business will be worth more than the company.

We aren't calling bullshit on this, but the idea that a robot like this will be available to market any time soon seems rather unrealistic. We haven't heard much about why this could possibly work for the company, given the short time frame Musk is aiming for, but other companies have been trying to create humanoid robots to take over human work for years. It took Boston Dynamics 25 years of dedicated learning to build Atlas, and other automakers like Honda and Toyota have also unveiled robot concepts in recent years that have barely landed.

Why is that happening? There is a question of whether a humanoid robot is the most efficient way to automate things. There is a question of cost and scale. Who is the target audience for a robot that will take away drudgery? People who don't have enough money to pay for things like laundry or grocery shopping are the ones who are currently toiling in the grind. The cost of a Roomba alone could be as much as $900. Will the robot be able to scale quickly enough to be less than $10,000 a pop? Probably not.