How much would Tesla's Optimus robot cost?

Musk argues Optimus robots could automate almost all human labor for as little as $20,000 each.

When could people buy a humanoid robot?

Musk predicted Optimus could be on sale to the public by the end of 2027. 1X's Neo home robot is available for preorder at $20,000, with delivery expected sometime later this year.

Why are robotics researchers skeptical?

Yann LeCun said at Davos that none of the companies building humanoid robots have any idea how to make them smart enough to be useful. Jonathan Hurst said it's dramatically more difficult to make a machine that moves or behaves like a person than one that looks like a person.

RoboticsMIT Technology Review AIOct 8, 2026Oct 8, 2026, 19:00 JST

Elon Musk: Optimus humanoid robots on sale by end of 2027

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3 Key Points

What happened
Elon Musk said Tesla's Optimus humanoid robots could go on sale to the public by the end of 2027, priced as little as $20,000 each, calling Optimus potentially “the biggest product ever.”
Why it matters
If that timeline holds, a general-purpose robot at that price would move humanoids from controlled factory trials toward everyday use — though researchers say the machines still fail too often to be reliable, with one noting 70% success is like it doesn't work.

WHO IT HITSHome robotics startups and logistics operators weighing a $20,000 humanoid purchase face a reliability gap: today's machines mostly need remote human operators for non-factory tasks.

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Context & Analysis

Musk is not alone in his evangelism. Marc Andreessen has said robotics could become the “biggest industry in the history of the planet,” and Jensen Huang said in January that humanoid robots would match human-level ability this year. Morgan Stanley projects nearly 1 billion robots that resemble and act like humans by 2050, a market worth over $5 trillion.

The gap between those proclamations and lab reality is where the debate sits. As far back as 1495, Leonardo da Vinci sketched a mechanical knight. Westinghouse's Elektro drew crowds at the 1939 World's Fair, Waseda University's WABOT-1 arrived in 1973, and Honda's ASIMO was discontinued in 2018 unable to get beyond demonstrations. Today's robots, even with advanced AI, face the same existential challenge.

FAQ

How much would Tesla's Optimus robot cost?: Musk argues Optimus robots could automate almost all human labor for as little as $20,000 each.
When could people buy a humanoid robot?: Musk predicted Optimus could be on sale to the public by the end of 2027. 1X's Neo home robot is available for preorder at $20,000, with delivery expected sometime later this year.
Why are robotics researchers skeptical?: Yann LeCun said at Davos that none of the companies building humanoid robots have any idea how to make them smart enough to be useful. Jonathan Hurst said it's dramatically more difficult to make a machine that moves or behaves like a person than one that looks like a person.

MIT Technology Review AIRead Original Article

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