Tesla's plans to release the humanoid robot Optimus have run into problems after the firing of Milan Kovac, the senior vice president who led the program, and the suspension of parts orders for two months pending a redesign, Electrek writes.
Sources in Tesla’s Chinese supply chain told AI Invest that the company has asked suppliers to pause new orders while engineers make “significant design adjustments.” Tesla estimates that this will take about two months. While the company has not officially abandoned its long-term plans to produce the robots, purchases will not resume until an updated version of Optimus is approved.
Elon Musk had publicly set a goal of producing 5,000 Optimus robots this year, but insiders say that deadline is now out of reach. Tesla initially purchased parts to assemble more than 1,000 robots, many of which were manufactured and installed at existing battery manufacturing plants. But their efficiency was less than twice that of human workers, highlighting the technical challenges.
In feedback to suppliers, Tesla has focused on hardware shortcomings: overheating of the motors in the joints, insufficient grip strength of the "hands", limited resource of transmission components and insufficient battery life. The company has established testing of prototype manipulators from at least three suppliers and is testing various mechanical solutions. On the software side, the team plans to use synthetic data more widely to improve the autonomy and reliability of Optimus when performing complex tasks.
Kovacs' departure last month, just months after his promotion by Elon Musk, has sparked a staff shakeup. Ashok Elluswamy, who was promoted to senior vice president of autonomous driving at the same time, has taken over the leadership of the Optimus program.
Despite the delays, Tesla has no plans to abandon robot production. The company is expected to unveil an updated "third generation" Optimus (with integration of the Grok chatbot from another of Musk's xAI projects) at its annual shareholder meeting.