The Optimus robots at Tesla’s Cybercab event were humans in disguise

Tesla has made sure its Optimus robots are a big part of its luxury Cybercab, which was revealed in person last week. The robots mingled with the crowd, served drinks and played games with the guests, and danced inside the gazebo. The most surprising thing is that they could even talk. But mostly it was just a show.

It becomes clear when you watch the videos of the event, of course. If Optimus really was a fully autonomous machine that could quickly respond to verbal and visual cues while speaking, one by one, to people in a dimly lit crowd, that would be amazing.

Attendee Robert Scoble posted that he had learned that humans “remotely assist” robots, later clarifying that an engineer had told him that robots use AI to walk, see. Electrek. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote that robots “rely on tele-ops (human intervention)” in a note, the outlet reported.

There is something obvious to back up those claims, like the fact that the robots all have different voices or that their responses were quick, with gestures to match.

It doesn’t sound like Tesla was going out of its way to make anyone think the Optimus machines were self-made. In another video that Jalopnik pointing, Optimus’ voice jokingly told Scoble that “there might be” when he asked him how much it was being controlled by the AI.

Another robot — or hearing human — told the attendee in an artificial voiceover, “Today, I’m being assisted by a human,” adding that it’s not completely autonomous. (The word tripped over the word “independence.”)

Musk first announced Tesla’s humanoid robot by bringing what was clearly a person in a robot suit on stage, so it’s no surprise that the Optimuses (Optimi? Optimodes?) at last week’s event were hyperbolic in their presentation. And the people who left didn’t seem upset or betrayed by that. But if you were hoping to get a sense of just how far Tesla has come in its humanoid robotics work, the “We, Robot” event was not the place to look.