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This is when Elon Musk’s Optimus robots could come to your home

Elon Musk claimed this week that Tesla’s humanoid robots “will be the greatest product ever” – sparking a lively debate about when and if he will succeed in putting a robot in every home.

The walking, talking Optimus robots stole the show at a Thursday evening event in Los Angeles where the company’s ‘Cybercar’, a self-driving taxi, was unveiled.

The nearly six-foot-tall robots danced on stage to techno music, served fruity cocktails and played rock, paper, scissors.

Musk said the bots can “basically do anything you want” – like mowing your lawn, cleaning the kitchen after dinner, babysitting your kids or just being a friend – and that in the long run they will be less than a car cost, between $20,000 and $30,000.

An Optimus robot serves drinks at the Tesla event. X/OptimusAI_Token

Musk was quiet on the timing on Thursday, but earlier this year he said Tesla could potentially sell the humanoid robots by the end of 2025.

Nevertheless, experts disagree on whether Musk will be able to overcome many of the bots’ kinks in just a few years.

Dev Nag, CEO of QueryPal, a support automation company that uses artificial intelligence, said it will likely be five or more years before consumers see Optimus bots in their homes.

“The robot still faces challenges in walking steadily on uneven terrain, lasting all day on a single battery charge and safely navigating between people and pets — a thornier problem than it seems,” Nag told The Post.

“While Musk is known for his ambitious timelines, most experts believe Optimus will first prove itself in factories and warehouses before it is ready for domestic use,” he said.

This despite the astonishing capabilities that the Optimus bots showed on Thursday evening.

“How is everyone?” a bartending bot in a cowboy hat and apron calling out to the guests, with a hint of a Texas accent.

When a customer asked for a watermelon-flavored drink, the cowbot double-checked the order: “A watermelon? ‘Of course you can!’

Earlier this year, Musk said Tesla could sell the humanoid robots externally by the end of 2025. via REUTERS

Agnieszka Pilat, a robotics artist who works closely with Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics, agreed that rolling out the robots within five years is “very optimistic.”

The bots will likely be first made available to billionaires and other high-status individuals within five years, but Pilat says it will take about a decade for them to be fully rolled out at retail.

“Mass adoption will take time because they are very expensive. They will not be deployed. The software is complicated and the hardware is complicated,” Pilat told The Post. “Where are the flying cars?”

On the other hand, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives — who said he spoke with an Optimus robot for more than an hour at Thursday night’s event in Hollywood — is almost as optimistic as Musk.

He expects the bots to appear in households by 2027.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said he interacted with an Optimus bot for more than an hour during the Tesla event. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives

The robots unveiled Thursday evening were completely “non-programmatic” and on track to be “fully autonomous,” Ives told The Post.

“What Tesla unveiled last night was breathtaking,” he said. “Last night, I believe, was a historic event.”

The Optimus bots were much more advanced than techies expected after Musk introduced his ‘Tesla bot’ – a man who danced on stage in a robot suit – in 2021 and showed off a prototype in 2022 that had to be held up by a stand.

Shawn DuBravac, CEO of the Avrio Institute, which helps companies anticipate technology shifts, says household robots will eventually become as common as washing machines and dishwashers.

But he agrees with other experts that there are many hurdles beyond the price that Musk still has to overcome.

Experts say the bots’ price — about $20,000 to $30,000, according to Musk — will pose a challenge for widespread rollout. via REUTERS
Tesla’s bots are likely to face regulatory challenges around data privacy, safety standards and liability, experts said. via REUTERS

“They can do simple tasks now, but full autonomy for complex household tasks will take some time,” DuBravac told The Post. “What makes other household robots, such as washing machines and dishwashers, successful is their ability to perform individual tasks almost flawlessly every time.”

Optimus could also face legal hurdles when it comes to security standards, data privacy and liability in the event of outages, DuBravac said.

Musk’s Tesla is “in a very bright spotlight,” Ives admits. “If there is an incident involving a robot, this is strictly monitored.”

Optimus could also face social and cultural challenges when it comes to a widespread rollout, experts said. But Ives argued that tech giants have overcome these hurdles before.

“In 2007, people viewed the concept of smartphones as something anomalous,” Ives told The Post. “Now look where we are today.”