Tesla starts humanoid robot production in California with shipments expected next year

Tesla has begun production of its humanoid Optimus robots in Fremont, California, with customer shipments anticipated as early as next year, Manufacturing Dive reported.

Elon Musk explained that Tesla is ramping up production while addressing challenges in training the robots, which currently lack extensive real-world data unlike Tesla's self-driving car fleet.

To overcome this, Tesla plans to create an Optimus Academy of 10,000 to 20,000 robots that will learn tasks through self-play, improving their capabilities over time.

Competitors such as Toyota and Hyundai are also advancing humanoid robotics for factory automation. Toyota aims to deploy 400,000 robots as part of a $6.4 billion investment, while Hyundai's Boston Dynamics subsidiary opened a robotics center in Georgia to test Atlas humanoids.

Tesla intends to use its Terafab facility in Texas to produce AI5 chips, next-generation processors designed to power the Optimus robots' artificial intelligence systems.