With car sales cratering worldwide, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is desperately looking for alternative areas of growth.
Apart from preparing to launch a fleet of autonomous "Cybercab" robotaxis, the billionaire has promised that an army of Optimus humanoid robots could soon be roaming factory floors, heralding a revolution in manufacturing.
At least, that's his grandiose vision. Earlier this week, Musk told CNBC that the carmaker will have "thousands of Optimus robots working in Tesla factories by the end of this year, beginning this fall," a characteristically ambitious timeline that's likely far removed from reality.
But even the company's own former executives have some serious doubts about a fleet of bipedal robots as Tesla's saving grace.
As the EV maker's first Optimus lead, Chris Walti, who left the firm in 2022, told Business Insider, humanoid robots simply don't make any sense in such a setting.
"It's not a useful form factor," he said. "Most of the work that has to be done in industry is highly repetitive tasks where velocity is key."
The human form "evolved to escape wolves and bears," Walti added. "We weren't designed to do repetitive tasks over and over again. So why would you take a hyper suboptimal system that really isn't designed to do repetitive tasks and have it do repetitive tasks?"
The little we've seen of Tesla's progress on its Optimus robot has left something to be desired.