Tesla has begun making its Optimus humanoid robot at its Fremont, California factory, in space that previously built electric vehicles. It said so on 21 October alongside third-quarter results, TechCrunch reports.
The shareholder letter calls the machines the company’s first production-quality bots and says the process is suitable for a commercial product, while adding that the hardware and manufacturing will keep being iterated.
Musk called it early production and said the ramp will be slow and somewhat bumpy, because the product is so new, in TechCrunch’s account.
He also said the design needs more tuning to be safe, reliable and durable over long periods, and that the AI software needs substantial work before the robot can handle open-ended tasks.
The money behind it is under pressure. Third-quarter net income fell 43 percent to $787 million, from $1.37 billion a year earlier, with spending on AI and Optimus and lower regulatory credit sales weighing on profit. Revenue was $28.04 billion, flat on the year and roughly $200 million below the previous quarter. Deliveries were 486,532 vehicles, about 6,000 more than the prior quarter but fewer than a year earlier.
The unsupervised self-driving timeline slipped again as well. Tesla’s AI chief, Ashok Elluswamy, now suspects the first customer vehicles could join a robotaxi fleet around the second quarter of 2027.
TechCrunch gives no production volume, price or customer for Optimus. Without a count, started production describes a line, not a product anyone can buy.
