2027: The New Horizon for Tesla's Humanoid Robot
Tesla has shifted its timeline for delivering Optimus to external customers, citing persistent challenges with the robot's durability and intelligence.
By Ji-eun Choi ·
The end of 2027 has emerged as a new target date for when Tesla will begin handing its humanoid robots over to the first customers outside the company. The timeline, revealed on Tesla's Q3 2026 earnings call, is contingent on resolving what Elon Musk identified as significant hurdles in the machine's artificial intelligence, physical durability, and design.
Production has already started on a high-volume line in Fremont, the former home of Model S and Model X manufacturing. While a significant portion of the machinery for a line intended to produce a million robots a year is in place, reaching that scale will take at least a year and could take longer. The pace is limited by ongoing changes to the robot's design, which must be finalized before mass production can ramp up.
Musk laid out a specific list of issues that need to be resolved. The company is still working to perfect the AI, the electromechanical design, and the reliability of the hardware, specifically ensuring a robot does not wear out after just one month of use. An engineer on the call pointed to the hand as a particularly difficult area of hardware development, along with custom gears that present reliability concerns. Musk elaborated on the hand, noting that its fingers must be soft enough to manage delicate objects but also durable enough to survive constant wear, a challenge compounded by the fact that, unlike humans, the robot cannot heal itself.
To advance its AI, the company faces a unique challenge. Unlike its autonomous driving program, which gathers data from millions of vehicles on the road, Tesla does not have a fleet of robots collecting real-world experience. The plan to address this involves constructing 10,000 to 20,000 robots to practice tasks in an environment it calls an Optimus Academy. Additionally, the robot is slated to receive Tesla's own AI5 chip around April 2027.
The push for a late 2027 delivery date continues a pattern of shifting schedules for the Optimus project. In 2024, the goal was to begin building Optimus for internal use in 2025 and for other companies in 2026. A subsequent commitment to produce 10,000 robots in 2025, with several thousand performing useful work by year-end, was not met. According to a Q3 shareholder letter, only the units currently being manufactured on the Fremont line are considered the first production-quality bots.
During the earnings call, Musk stated that, to the best of his knowledge, there is no one close to Tesla regarding general-purpose humanoid robots. This claim is difficult to reconcile with the progress of competitors. XPeng, for instance, activated an automated production line for its IRON robot in September, with plans to begin mass production by the end of 2026 and deliver units to customers starting in the first half of 2027, a schedule comparable to or even ahead of Tesla's.
Boston Dynamics, another rival in the space, began producing its electric Atlas robot in January and has committed all of its 2026 deployments. This includes a partnership with Google DeepMind and a training center at Hyundai's Metaplant in Georgia, where Atlas is learning to sequence car parts for an assembly line. Hyundai has announced plans to deploy 25,000 robots across its own factories over the next few years. The Boston Dynamics team also includes Milan Kovac, who was formerly Tesla's head of Optimus.
In response to a question about where the design was still undergoing changes, Musk also promised a video showcasing Optimus performing tasks that have not been pre-programmed. This demonstration, expected within a month or two, is intended to show that the robot can handle work beyond scripted routines that would not be viable in real-world applications. The core problems facing Tesla, including durable hardware and adaptable AI, are the same ones every humanoid robot company is currently fighting to solve.
The next steps involve resolving the technical issues to meet the late 2027 delivery target. The company plans to produce a video demonstrating unscripted tasks and will continue ramping production of its AI5 chip for the robot. Success will be measured by whether Optimus can reliably perform industrial jobs that are dangerous, repetitive, or require around-the-clock operation, thereby proving its usefulness to the outside customers waiting for delivery.
Source: Electrek
