Are Tesla’s robot prototypes AI marvels or remote-controlled toys?

Partying robots spark debate about accuracy of Musk's "biggest product ever of any kind" vision.

See full article...

 

[sigsgaard]

"For walking your dog.......or just be your friend" - well if you just get off your lazy butt and walk the dog yourself, the dog will be the best friend you can imagine - no need to buy a piece of crap from a lunatic oligarch!

 

[RZetopan]

Driving must be solved, right? He just announced the RoboTaxi. It would be pretty embarrassing to release an autonomous cab service if you don't have the driving part solved. That's like 90% of running a cab service.

His robotic bus is so advanced that it can't even get past speed bumps without high centering! The future is now!* https://jalopnik.com/elon-musk-invented-a-worse-city-bus-1851670591

*You just have to close your eyes and imagine that nothing else actually exists to enter the Muskland Matrix.

 

[RZetopan]

Lol at the one downvote. I guess Elon has an ars account.

Not necessarily, perhaps he has a robotic account on ars. Has it ever said anything rational?

 

[RZetopan]

What is the venn diagramm of early hummer owners and early cybertruck owners?

A circle so small that it is a single point in the "matrix".

 

[David Woodward]

The Electrek article points out that some of the robots’ human minders had some sort of hand held controller. And as evidence that the conversations were with remote humans “Each of the robots we’ve seen had a different voice, and a different accent – though mostly California or Texas accents, the two locations where Tesla has significant presence.”
https://electrek.co/2024/10/11/it-s...ots-at-teslas-event-were-under-human-control/

 

[jefito]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain .

Pay less attention to the man behind the microphone.

 

[Kirsu]

The lede photo is a fake, or the drinks aren't drinks but made to look like they are.

The angle of the glasses is tilted, and the level of the fluid in the glasses is tilted at the same angle, as the glasses are, instead of being parallel with the ground.

Based on the angle of the level of the drink in the glass in the robots left hand, the robot is on a different level than the people around it. The other drink is more level, and I suspect the person is holding it instead of getting it.

So it's likely the photo is a composite of some kind and whoever assembled it didn't account for the angles. It could be AI generated, but a bad copy and paste job sounds more likely for Tesla. Either way, it wasn't there doing what it appears to be doing. Never trust anything that comes from Tesla. Especially promotional bullshit.

New feature coming to Grok SOON

 

[000]

Writing "Scanning social media", when every single one of your links are from the platform that megalomaniac weirdo owns, which also happens to be where most of his personality cult is operating nowadays, seems a bit disingenuous to me.

 

[Piererer]

Fascinating that we are living in a time where we are even doubting if these are human controlled or not. My guess would be remote controlled. Mostly because progress in AI seems to come from scale of data and training and innovation in algorithms (like transformer models). If there had been any real breakthrough in these areas it would have been mentioned I think. Even if they were human controlled Musk could still say something about the technological advancements.

 

[Starway]

The famous Honda Asimo robot has always been just a puppet run remotely by human operators. It's not a lot different than those "robot" presenters found at places like car shows, where it's always fun looking for where they've hidden the operator booth, or finding the "random audience person" with the remote hidden in his shopping bag.

But they are all just puppets. Not robots.

Tesla has spent a fortune doing the same thing, again.

What happened to innovation?

 

[virtualkiwi]

I'm sorry to burst Elon's bubble, but I am one of the 8 billion who has absolutely no interest in one of these machines.
The only use case for a robot assistant that I have would be as a beast of burden, in which case a quadruped robot would be preferable, however I would require it to have a range of at least 60Km on uneven terrain and endurance of up to a week, while carrying a load of maybe 30Kg. I think there's already a much cheaper solution to this which has several thousand years of successful testing. An ass.
Of course Elon might innovate to meet market demand, till the entire world wants his ass.

 

[Cthel]

Billionaires didn't earn their wealth, so they have no idea how circular the economy is.

If you eliminate the "labor cost" from most jobs, it's not the age of abundance. It's the age of riots in the street because most of the population is homeless and starving. Billionaires are 1 person against the mob, and their body guards are likely to turn on them as well.

Which is why "Armed guard robots" are going to be one of the first things they buy.

The rich survivalists buying "luxury survival bunkers" are already discussing how to fit human guards/guard's families with obedience collars to prevent them from staging a bunker coup; they're going to flock to the promise of a slavishly loyal, lethally-effective bodyguard.

 

[AdrianS]

While scepticism is understandable given how much has been promised and not delivered, its important to note what HAS been achieved. Typically when Elon promises are broken, noone else is doing better, in most cases not even close.
Self driving cars have been coming forever and still isn't here, but the FSD that you can get on a $40k Tesla in the US is much much better than anything anyone else is doing, its not close. Most aren't bothering to try. Not including waymo, who don't sell their cars to the public.
Same with SpaceX, some companies are pursuing reusable rockets but most aren't even bothering. Everyone is so far behind its pointless talking about them.
Starlink likewise.
Neutral link might have competition, but if there are any companies that are at the same level of progress, they are keeping it secret.
Chatgpt could do human like conversation like these robots all day long, is grok that far behind chatgpt?

Neuralink is at least 5 years behind the state of the art, if not 10.

Other companies like Mercedes are well ahead of Tesla when it comes to real self driving, as in unsupervised.

And his "robots" are driven by remote control.

But keep drinking that kool-aid, it's doing you good.

 

[AdrianS]

Dont waste your time with these people and enjoy the avalanche of downvotes that are coming.

Its their little security blanket against those that dare not thinking like them and blindly following their tribalism.

Funny word, "tribalism". Some people may think that you're referring to Elon worshippers, who are the most cult-like tribe on the internet.

 

[Hopefully Smarter]

Elon’s robots are distractions created to sucker a complicit tech press into covering nonsense while he spends real money destroying democracy.

That goes for his robe taxi too.

 

[Litazia]

"For walking your dog.......or just be your friend" - well if you just get off your lazy butt and walk the dog yourself, the dog will be the best friend you can imagine - no need to buy a piece of crap from a lunatic oligarch!

Not even that. During the pandemic, people still had to walk their dogs, and you could meet people outside... so all the people with dogs made impromptu dog clubs, where they got together and their dogs got to play with other dogs, and the people got to talk with other people. They made friends that way. Through having dogs. And I still see these dog clubs around me, and I'm pretty sure this phenomenon isn't limited to my specific neighbourhood in my city.

This really strikes me as Musk not actually wanting the things he has in his life. He doesn't want actual human friends, he wants blindly obedient objects that blow glitter up his ass. He doesn't want to take care of his children (that he had purposefully made) or his dog[1], he wants objects to do that for him. He wants to be seen as a successful person by the rest of humanity, complete with the standard trappings (house, children, car, dog) without actually caring about the people around him. This is not a visionary person, this is someone who thinks humanity begins and ends with him.

[1] - IIRC, he owns a Shiba Inu named Doge. You know, after the meme. If you ever wanted more proof this man is deeply uncreative, there ya go.

 

[jocedeg]

I would happily pay around $300,000, maybe even more (depends on how maintenance costs) for the equivalent of a C3P0. This would be a significant portion of my net worth. I'm sure there are many others that would pay much more, and buy multiples, at fractions of their net worth.

The fact that such a thing is not available for purchase is a clear indication that they are not even close to existing, at any price.

Which is a long winded way of saying: fuck off Elon with your nonsense.

Really ? C3PO ? One of the most annoying character in all Star Wars ?

 

[truth serum]

It was controlled it was so obvious, they even had conversations with the animatronic operators.

Yeah it was clearly remote controlled.

Not a fan of the lack clarity on that matter at all. It will always be a bad business practice. Google was rightly called out on it a while back when demoing their AI. Musk is clearly banking on avoiding any pushback due to him being a cult of personality pop culture icon.

But with that being said there is something to be said with solving the physical hardware side of the problem before the software side of the problem. As in while both sides of the equation are the hard part the hardware side of the equation is the harder part. I would even say there will be actual use cases for fully human like remote controlled drones like what are demonstrated here and once that happens the AI software to allow them to perform autonomously will advance a lot quicker once there is a stable physical foundation to work with.

Just stop being so shady with the fact that these are clearly remote controlled drones.

 

[OrsonX]

What will the date be when the first human is shot and killed by a fully autonomous humanoid robot?

My guestimate: 2050

 

[Frodo Douchebaggins]

There's a big "fake it till we make it" vibe here.

Then again, think SpaceX or what was actually accomplished at Tesla?

Not everything promised was delivered, or on time. But a lot was in the end.

Don't excuse his fucking ongoing fraud please.

 

[cgo_12345]

Thanks for accusing me if drinking koolaid. Nice.

So sorry that someone accurately describing what you're doing upsets you so much.

 

[OrsonX]

I don't understand why i'm supposed to want a "30k" (more like 90-120k) personal robot in the home. Or why everyone else is going to want one too.

That's actually a really good question! I've always loved the idea of the personal robot, but thinking about it now I've now idea what I want it for!! Perhaps just the novelty factor!

A few earlier posters suggested "cutting the lawn, fixing the drainpipes" etc. But I guess you could just have a community one for these mundane tasks.

Perhaps as a companion instead of a dog / cat / husband / wife? Here I suspect their lack of "squishiness" might be a problem.

 

[DarthSlack]

$30K gets a lot of lawns cut and drainpipes fixed. Just sayin'.

 

[dikbozo]

My answer to the article's tile:
Considering this shit show comes from the world's oldest 8 year old, toys is the only answer possible.

 

[TigerAway]

Clearly the software stack is limited to remote control by human.

So it is purely a hardware demo. Any details on how this humanoid robot hardware stacks up against competitors? What’s the battery life like? How much power does it use? How many and what type of cameras does it use? How much processing power does it have? How many actuators does it have in its arms and legs and hands and feet, and what kind are they? Is it mainly built with off the shelf parts or is it proprietary?

 

[j0hn]

Well Tesla (totally independent from X, no need for any judges in cases involving X to recuse themselves due to their Tesla stock) for some mysterious reason chose to live stream this event, featuring things that musk has said will decide the very existence of Tesla, exclusively on X.

Tesla also streamed the event on YouTube.

View: https://youtu.be/6v6dbxPlsXs?t=3165


SpaceX does the annoying only on X thing, but Tesla does not, so far.

 

[Madestjohn]

Tesla stock is a scam at this point.

At this point?

 

[Madestjohn]

There's a big "fake it till we make it" vibe here.

Then again, think SpaceX or what was actually accomplished at Tesla?

Not everything promised was delivered, or on time. But a lot was in the end.

…. Would you care to put that in some kinda context ?
like percentage wise ..

how much of Musk’s actual claims of imminent advancements have actually ever come to pass?
…. Not 25% … definitely not 50%. .. not 10%

has it ever gotten out of the low single digits?

 

[Madestjohn]

That's actually a really good question! I've always loved the idea of the personal robot, but thinking about it now I've now idea what I want it for!! Perhaps just the novelty factor!

A few earlier posters suggested "cutting the lawn, fixing the drainpipes" etc. But I guess you could just have a community one for these mundane tasks.

Perhaps as a companion instead of a dog / cat / husband / wife? Here I suspect their lack of "squishiness" might be a problem.

Average base salary
updated at October 01, 2024
The average salary for a Domestic Worker is $29,394
per Year in the United States.

…. If you hold their passports for ‘security reasons’ you can generally get them much much cheaper.

 

[mpfaff]

Thanks for accusing me if drinking koolaid. Nice.
After digging on your suggestion your right there's a couple of companies ahead of neural link on their clinical trials.
As for the Mercedes system, found a couple of videos from 2 weeks ago reviewing the system, which works well on specific approved motorways up to about 60mph, but you need a lead vehicle for the car to pace itself behind and you have to put your hand on the wheel approaching and passing off-ramps and on ramps. It will let you read a book or watch a film, which is great, but you'll be frequently interrupted for the above reasons.
By contrast there are numerous videos of the Tesla system on the latest software driving on motorways, cities, country roads, etc, hands free, but you do need to be keeping a lookout. And you can have that on a second hand model 3 for less than $25k.Imo the differences in capability between these systems is obvious.

The difference between Waymo and Tesla are also leagues apart. It becomes immediately obvious when you just look at the center screen riding in either and see the level of what both cars can see. Supervised self driving barely counts as self driving because it requires your full attention but not your full control.

 

[symbolic-logician]

Translation. And comic relief.

Officially, protocol droid. But you got the gist down pat

 

[CuriousCatBoy]

In practice, the idea is likely much more sinister: Make all the jobs obsolete that Musk and his libertarian pals never had much respect for to begin with.

I assume the people who’s income has been obliterated by this ‘revolution’ won’t be the one having their babies sat by optimuses.

Precisely. If these prototypes actually were even close to working as advertised, Elon would have laid off his entire Tesla assembly line staff.

 

[k h]

First, the cars were driving themselves with no human driver.

You don't think the cars were teleoperated or following a preprogrammed path?

 

[k h]

Precisely. If these prototypes actually were even close to working as advertised, Elon would have laid off his entire Tesla assembly line staff.

That's his intention. Wait for it.