Musk’s humanoid robots are here but they won’t help around the house

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Optimus, the humanoid robot that Elon Musk claims will do household chores and cure poverty, was a hit at Tesla’s recent product launch. While many Musk fans came for the main event—the reveal of the company’s much-hyped robotaxi—some in the crowd appeared more impressed with faceless black-and-white robots that danced, served drinks and interacted with human attendees.

The movements of these bipedal robots were incredibly dexterous. It seemed almost too good to be true. As the world later found out, it was: Tesla folks were partly in control remotely behind the scenes.

Musk’s robot is likely many years away from being a marketable household product. But many companies are testing human-form robots in warehouses and on factory floors, structured settings where the tech can soon succeed. Humanoid robots being developed by Agility Robotics, Neura Robotics, Boston Dynamics, Apptronik, Reflex Robotics and others are more capable with each new version.

Companies want bipedal robots because they combine mobility with robotic arms, enabling them to do jobs such as packing a truck densely with different-size boxes. But progress is gradual. The challenge is not only for robots to mimic human movements, but to do so safely around workers.

This isn’t easy. Ask Melonee Wise, chief product officer at Agility Robotics, whose test robot still struggles to distinguish between the plastic containers it needs to pick up and a human hand grabbing that same container. The robot isn’t viable if it mistakenly crushes a worker’s hand.