Musk Unveils Humanoid Tesla Bot Designed for ‘Boring, Repetitious and Dangerous’ Work

Leave it to Elon Musk to unveil a new humanoid robot by dressing a human in white who pretends to be robotic.

That’s what happened Thursday, when the Tesla CEO revealed an invention that runs on the same artificial intelligence used by the company’s electric vehicles. As Bloomberg reported, the aptly named “Tesla Bot “was introduced at Tesla’s AI Day. The actual robot itself was not in attendance, however. Instead, a person dressed in a skintight white suit and black helmet did a “jerky robot dance” across the stage to give people an idea of what it might look like.

Musk told those in attendance that the 5-foot, 8-inch robot is expected to weigh in at 125 pounds and be built from lightweight materials, CNET reported. Its head will be outfitted with the same autopilot cameras used by Tesla’s vehicles to sense the environment. It will also feature a screen to display information. The bot will operate using Tesla’s full self-driving computer.

“It’s intended to be friendly, and navigate through a world built for humans,” Musk said.

He went on to clarify that a humanoid robot prototype would probably launch next year, The Guardian reported, with the aim of doing “boring, repetitious and dangerous” work so humans don’t have to. This might include sending the bot out to the store to buy groceries.

Attendees at the event were treated to three slides detailing the robot’s proposed specifications, while Musk himself stressed the safety of the machine by mentioning that humans can both outrun and overpower it. As CNET noted, these remarks were likely intended to calm the nerves of those who remember Musk once saying that AI is the “biggest risk we face as a civilization.”