On Friday, October 11, Tesla presented several new products, such as the Cybercab, a two-passenger robot taxi without steering wheel and pedals, and the Robovan, an automated bus. In addition, the company demonstrated what the Optimus robot is capable of, which, although it had a considerable effect on visitors and some social media users, was still controlled by a human. This was reported by The Verge.

During the presentation, Elon Musk said that Optimus robots can “do anything,” but he forgot to clarify that they need a human to guide them behind the scenes. At the presentation, even the robots themselves repeatedly hinted or almost directly said that artificial intelligence had nothing to do with it.

Tesla hasn’t made any official statements about how Optimus works, but there is already plenty of evidence on social media that real people are behind them. In particular, when asked directly how much these robots use artificial intelligence, they answer “a little.” In addition, each of them has a different voice and they almost immediately answer questions with appropriate gestures, which artificial intelligence cannot do yet.

One of the Optimus robots responded directly that during the Tesla event, they were partially controlled by artificial intelligence. “Today, a human is helping me,” said the robot standing behind the bar.

Visitors did not seem too disappointed with this approach, but we will definitely have to wait for Tesla’s fully autonomous robots. Even though these robots were controlled by humans, the minimal delay in their actions and the precision of their movements still made a positive impression on those who saw Optimus in real life.