Elon Musk wants Optimus to be a 'good-looking' robot people think of as 'a friend'

The prototype for Optimus was first revealed in September 2022.Tesla Optimus

Elon Musk says he wants Tesla’s humanoid robot to be considered a friend.
Musk also joked that the company wanted to make the robot “good-looking.”
Musk discussed the robot’s potential at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Elon Musk wants you to think of Tesla’s Optimus robot as a friend.

Speaking at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Musk discussed Tesla’s ambitions for its humanoid robot.

“I think people will start to regard their personal Optimus robot as sort of a friend,” he said, likening it to characters from pop culture like Star Wars’ robot R2-D2.

While he clarified that Tesla was not currently planning to make Optimus look like a person, Musk joked that the company wanted to make the robot “good-looking.”

The Tesla CEO said the fully functional bots would be capable of performing a wide range of tasks, acting as a sort of personal assistant for a household.

“You can just ask it to walk your dog, take care of your house, babysit the kids, cook dinner, play the piano — so it’s a generalized humanoid robot,” he said.

He believes that each person will have their own robot and there will be others working in different industries, suggesting that robots could outnumber humans in the future.

Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

Musk has touted Tesla’s Optimus robots as one of the company’s most valuable assets.

“I think Optimus will be more valuable than everything else combined,” Musk said during a Tesla earnings call in April.

“Because if you’ve got a sentient humanoid robot that is able to navigate reality and do tasks at request, there is no meaningful limit to the size of the economy,” he said.

Tesla may have already put the robots to work on the factory floor.

In a rundown of the company’s achievements since 2018 on X, Tesla said it had deployed two Optimus robots “performing tasks in the factory autonomously.”

Musk has remained optimistic that Optimus will begin shipping next year. However, he’s also acknowledged that it was “impossible to make a precise prediction.”