Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed this week that his company’s in-development humanoid robots could form personalities that match their owners and become good companions, as well as laborers.
After being asked on the Lex Fridman Podcast whether Tesla’s robots could serve as a “friend or assistant” and help combat loneliness, Musk replied, “Yeah, I think the possibilities are endless.”
“It’s not quite in Tesla’s primary mission direction of accelerating sustainable energy, but it’s an extremely useful thing that we can do for the world,” he continued, claiming, however, that he primarily sees the robots performing jobs too dangerous or boring for humans.
“I think work will become optional. There’s a lot of jobs that if people weren’t paid to do it, they wouldn’t do it, like it’s not fun necessarily,” Musk declared, using dishwashing as an example. “Basically if it’s dangerous, boring, has potential for repetitive stress injury, that kind of thing, then that’s really where humanoid robots would add the most value initially.”
Returning to the topic of robot friendship, Musk claimed Tesla’s robots could potentially be “a very good companion” and “could develop a personality over time that is unique.”
It’s not like just all robots are the same and that personality could evolve to match the owner
Musk also suggested that the imperfections of the robots as they learn and evolve could contribute to their charm, like the robot companions R2-D2 and C-3PO from ‘Star Wars’.
The Tesla Bot was announced by the company in August and Musk has claimed that a prototype would be built in 2022.