Tesla Optimus

Tesla Optimus (Tesla Bot) is a general-purpose humanoid robot developed by Tesla, announced as a concept at AI Day in August 2021 and shown as working prototypes at AI Day in September 2022. The second generation, Optimus Gen 2 (December 2023), demonstrated Tesla-designed actuators and sensors, roughly 30 percent faster walking, a weight reduction of about 10 kg, 11-degree-of-freedom hands with fingertip tactile sensing, and a 2-degree-of-freedom actuated neck. Optimus shares its perception and compute approach with Tesla's Full Self-Driving stack. Tesla positions Optimus for factory and general-purpose labor and projects a long-run price near $20,000 to $30,000 at scale, but those figures and timelines are company projections rather than realized outcomes. At the We Robot event in October 2024, Optimus units that appeared to converse and serve drinks were reported by Bloomberg and TechCrunch to be human-teleoperated rather than autonomous. Tesla has claimed internal factory testing of Optimus, but on the Q4 2025 earnings call (January 2026) Elon Musk acknowledged the robots are not in material use in Tesla factories and remain in the research-and-development phase. As of mid-2026 there is no verified external commercial sale, and the production-design V3 reveal has slipped repeatedly. Optimus is therefore recorded at research maturity: its factory presence is maker-facility R&D, not a verified commercial deployment.

Tesla Optimus is listed at $20,000 to $30,000 on the DEPLOY registry. This is a manufacturer target price, not a confirmed consumer price.

Yes. Tesla Optimus is independently verified in real-world operation on the DEPLOY registry, confirmed at named deployment sites with primary sources: not a concept, render, or demo-only.

Not verified as fully autonomous. Tesla Optimus's capabilities on the DEPLOY registry are recorded as teleoperated-assisted, demonstrated-only, or vendor claims (Folds laundry and Tidies a room), not independently confirmed to run without a human in the loop.

Tesla Optimus's recorded specifications on the DEPLOY registry: Degrees of freedom: 28 body DOF plus 11 per hand (Gen 2); Weight: approx 57 to 73 kg depending on generation; Gen 2 reduced about 10 kg vs Gen 1; Battery: 2.3 kWh, 52 V (Gen 1 published spec); Height: 173; Payload: 20 kg. See the Specs section for the full sourced set.

Tesla Optimus is made by Tesla, based in Austin, Texas, USA, founded in 2003.

6 verified deployments of Tesla Optimus are on the DEPLOY registry, including at South Korea, Austin, Texas, USA (Gigafactory Texas), Fremont, California, USA.

Tesla Optimus runs Tesla FSD-Bot and Grok (xAI). Each brain assignment is verified at the registry level via primary sources.

On the DEPLOY registry, comparable humanoid robots to Tesla Optimus include Walker S2, Digit, Unitree G1, Atlas.

Tesla Optimus and Walker S2 (UBTech Robotics · 18 deployments) are both humanoid robots on the DEPLOY registry. Tesla Optimus has 6 verified deployments on record. Compare both records for specs, safety, deployments, and verified-vs-claimed autonomy.

On DEPLOY's intelligence score, which blends verified deployments, safety, adoption, media, and IP signals, Tesla Optimus ranks in roughly the top 17% of humanoid models tracked by the registry.

Tesla Optimus is at the research stage on the DEPLOY maturity ladder (research, prototype, pilot, commercial, production). Research stage means active development without commercial deployments on file.

Tesla Optimus has 56 active incidents on record in the DEPLOY registry. 4 recalls and 52 incidents on record (3 catastrophic, 2 critical, 14 serious, 8 moderate, 29 minor). Most recent: Jul 2026. Retracted incidents are excluded from this count.

No. As of July 2026, the Tesla Optimus is not for sale. There is no pre-order, reservation, waitlist, or deposit system. Elon Musk has stated a target price of $20,000 to $30,000 at full production scale, but Tesla has never published an official retail price. External sale is targeted for end of 2027 at the earliest.

Elon Musk has repeatedly said the Optimus could cost between $20,000 and $30,000 once production scales. However, Tesla has not confirmed a final retail price, and the target is for full-scale production, not the initial limited run. Industry analysts estimate broad consumer availability is unlikely before 2028-2029.