Tesla has increased production of its Optimus humanoid robot by roughly tenfold in recent months, yet the company still struggles to achieve stable, large-scale manufacturing, according to people familiar with the matter. The production line is confronting multiple obstacles, including the robot's precision hand components, automation equipment, and supply chain constraints.
Two people with knowledge of the project said Tesla was able to produce several hundred Optimus units per week last month, compared with only a few dozen per week during the small-batch trial production phase in the second quarter. Management has told employees that the goal is to build an automated continuous production line by the end of the year capable of exceeding 1,000 units per week. Even so, that target remains far short of the company's longer-term plan of 20,000 units per week.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly described Optimus as the company's most important product, saying the humanoid robot will eventually be capable of performing all kinds of work, from factory production and data center operations to cooking and cleaning and other daily household chores. Tesla currently derives most of its revenue from vehicle sales, and Musk believes Optimus will drive the company's further transformation into an artificial intelligence enterprise.
The Optimus project's timeline has been adjusted on multiple occasions. In 2022, less than a year after Musk officially announced the humanoid robot plan, he said the product could enter mass production as soon as the following year. In January this year, Musk said at the World Economic Forum that Tesla could begin selling Optimus to external customers by the end of 2027. In April, he mentioned that a new generation of Optimus was expected to be unveiled mid-year, but no such demonstration took place after that time frame passed. On a July earnings call, Musk acknowledged that building Optimus is "a very difficult problem" and that scaling production poses enormous challenges, while saying at the time that mass production of Optimus would begin "very soon."
According to people familiar with the matter, the Optimus V3 units rolling off the line at the Fremont, California factory are not the final commercial model intended for customers, and Tesla is still continuously fine-tuning the product. The commercial version will need to meet higher standards of durability and reliability before it is released to the market. It is understood that the V3 version is lighter, carries more cameras, and has an appearance that is closer to a human form than previous generations. Most of the robots currently produced are kept for internal testing, model training, and data collection, with some deployed at Tesla office locations in Palo Alto, California.
Inside Tesla's factories, the robots are used only in strictly controlled areas, where their movements and tasks are closely monitored throughout. They perform only predetermined, specific tasks and are neither general-purpose intelligent robots nor remotely controlled devices. Tesla plans to gradually expand their operating areas as robot performance improves. Sources said Tesla initially intends to lease robots to external commercial customers rather than sell them outright. The leasing model makes it easier to recover, upgrade, or refurbish the equipment after the lease term ends, while data generated by the robots operating in customers' factories and warehouses can be used to iterate the AI system. Tesla has already shortlisted a group of potential customers, prioritizing companies whose factory and warehouse scenarios are similar to Tesla's own sites so that the robots can quickly adapt to the environment.
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