In an X Takeover interview on Oct 22, 2026, Elon Musk said many impressive humanoid robot demos online are preprogrammed or remote-controlled rather than truly autonomous, and that real intelligent robots must handle unfamiliar scenarios. He said Tesla Optimus uses an end-to-end visual AI framework shared with FSD and Dojo supercomputing for autonomous learning, called dexterous hands the biggest hardware bottleneck, warned of supply-chain risks, and said Fremont's Optimus line will first prioritize internal data collection over rapid mass sales.
At Tesla's Q3 earnings call, Elon Musk said Robotaxi would become a significant revenue source in 2027, with contributions emerging from Q2, and Optimus humanoid robots would start delivering to external companies by the end of 2027, citing AI architecture as the current bottleneck.
Tesla filed shareholder materials with the U.S. SEC, announcing that its third-generation humanoid robot Optimus V3 is ready for mass production, with the first production lines under construction.
Elon Musk said on X on October 2 that Tesla will cut memory configurations on its AI5 and AI6 chips to reserve enough DRAM for Optimus robot mass production: AI5 RAM drops from 144GB to 72GB LP5 (down 50%), and AI6 RAM drops from 216GB to 144GB LP6 (down about 33%). He added that bandwidth stays unchanged and the impact on Optimus performance is expected to be negligible.
According to reports, Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus has encountered manufacturing challenges in scaling production, with the complex hand structure becoming a major bottleneck. Tesla has increased Optimus output roughly tenfold in recent months, from dozens of units per week in Q2 2026 to several hundred units per week now, but supplier constraints, automation equipment failures, and complex hand component assembly requirements make its target of 1,000 units per week by year-end challenging.
A Tesla team arrived in Ningbo on Sept. 16 and began a mass-production factory audit for its Optimus humanoid robot business on Sept. 17, covering design, engineering, procurement and supplier management, with orders placed to supply chain companies.