During “Tesla AI Day” livestreamed Aug 19, Elon Musk revealed that the world’s leading electric car company “Tesla” is introducing humanoid robots to their product line that are controlled by artificial intelligence. A prototype is expected to be built around this time next year, with the intention of eliminating dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks. 

   In an attempt to settle the obvious worry of a robot uprising, Musk also stated that “at a mechanical level, at a physical level, you can run away from it, and most likely overpower it.” These machines were obviously not designed with the goal of harming human beings, but many online commentors are scared, writing things like “So this is the beginning of the end” or “I don’t feel comfortable shopping at Walmart with someone’s robot next to me choosing milk… what if it malfunctions and rips my head off?”. It’s also worth noting how worried and nervous Musk sounds as he’s giving his presentation on this, it may just be the social awkwardness of a billionaire, but it doesn’t invoke much confidence in the safety and premise of this design.  

   The robot would be designed very similar to the Tesla cars, with autopilot cameras and sensors, as well as the same FSD or Full-Self-Driving computer used in the cars currently. It will also end up using DOJO, a brand-new artificial intelligence training system Musk announced during AI Day that is already being implemented into Tesla cars. 

   There is also a theory going around that the Tesla Robot will never make it into production, and that it is just a distraction to keep reporters away from an investigation on Tesla underway by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Aug 16, a few days before AI Day. NHTSA is requesting data from Tesla on how exactly the autopilot system detects emergency vehicles, on the bases of 11 crashes involving emergency service vehicles since 2018. Another crash was added to that list Aug 30, where a Tesla driving on autopilot hit a pulled over Florida Highway Patrol cruiser flashing its lights. Out of all these crashes 1 person was killed and 17 were injured. Tesla has not given up the data NHTSA has asked for yet and can receive a fine of over $114 million if they don’t give it up soon.