Tesla workers balk at training Optimus robots to replace them

Tesla's Optimus program is running into the same wall that faces every robotics company: getting enough training data for robots to learn a wide variety of manual tasks visually. Tesla leaned on imitation learning, having factory workers in Texas and California wear special suits that record their physical movements while they work. That approach ran into a human problem. The Information described some workers complaining because they "knew the robots were designed to eventually replace them," and Tesla has apparently moved the data collection to dedicated teams with "training hubs." The manufacturing side has its own issues: newly produced robots require immediate fixes, and the hand touch sensors have been unreliable enough that Tesla developed a glove-like sensor layer that can be swapped without replacing the entire robot hand.

The competitive picture adds pressure. The Information also highlighted Tesla's continued reliance on Chinese suppliers for robot components, a supply-chain dependency that has persisted across the US robotics industry even as the Trump administration tries to boost domestic production. In July, the Federal Communications Commission banned new foreign-made robots such as humanoid robots, four-legged robot dogs, and robot vacuum cleaners. Meanwhile, automakers in China, Japan, and South Korea are developing humanoids, Toyota plans to invest billions of dollars in upgrading factories with robots, and Hyundai plans to deploy up to 25,000 Atlas humanoid robots from Boston Dynamics over the next several years.

Agility Robotics, based in Oregon, is among those furthest along in commercial deployment, having first put humanoid robots to work at an Atlanta-area warehouse owned by GXO Logistics in 2024. The broader business case still has to be proven through more sustained and cost-effective deployments, and through showing that such robots can work safely around humans. For Tesla, how quickly it can resolve the training-data bottleneck — and the worker resistance it has surfaced — is likely to shape whether Optimus moves beyond carefully controlled, programmed tasks.