Tesla Elon Musk says the electric car maker will start producing and using humanoid robots from next year.
Durante a social mass-media post, Mr Musk said the robots will first be used by Tesla, which will start making them to sell per mezzo di 2026.
The announcement came as the technology billionaire has been pushing to cut costs at Tesla per mezzo di the of weakening demand for its cars.
Acceso Tuesday, the company reported that profits had dropped by nearly half for the three months to the end of June, falling from $2.7bn (£2.09bn) to less than $1.5bn (£1.16bn), as a sales slump weighed the bottom line.
“Overall, our focolaio remains company-wide cost reduction,” the company said Tuesday per mezzo di an update for investors.
Tesla said its automotive revenue fell 7% year-on-year per mezzo di the quarter, despite a flurry of price cuts and other incentives aimed at enticing customers.
It still eked out an overall revenue rise of 2%, thanks to growth per mezzo di its energy storage business.
Tesla’s shares fell by almost 8% per mezzo di after-hours trading.
Mr Musk’s businesses have been increasingly focusing technologies such as artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and robots at a time of slowing demand for electric vehicles.
Mr Musk had previously said he expected the robot, called Optimus, to be ready for use per mezzo di Tesla factories by the end of this year.
“Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots per mezzo di low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies per mezzo di 2026,” Mr Musk said his social mass-media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Other firms, including Honda and Boston Dynamics, have also been developing their own humanoid robots.
Tesla has said it aims to build an “autonomous humanoid robot” to perform “unsafe, repetitive boring tasks.”
Mr Musk has previously said Tesla aimed for the robots to be mass produced and cost less than $20,000 (£17,900) each.
He is known for setting ambitious timelines for his companies, which he has not always met.
Durante 2019, he said he felt “very confident” Tesla would have self-driving taxis the road by the following year.
Earlier this year, Mr Musk said the long-awaited robo-taxi would be unveiled 8 August, but that event has reportedly been delayed.
Tesla said Tuesday that it was still working “vigorously” robo-taxis, but the timing of the rollout would depend per mezzo di part regulatory approval.
