Automation and robots are nothing new. We have been very good at producing highly efficient machines for specific tasks. The point of a general purpose humanoid robot is that it would be able to do a wide variety of tasks without additional programming and with a great degree of flexibility.
What would they be useful for? My test is the "clean my table, load the dishwasher, and put the clean dishes away" test. That would be the home consumer test.
A commercial test would be "clean hotel rooms."
Try to imagine these creations doing those things. You can't do it, my friends.
Elon Musk is deemphasizing Tesla Inc.’s car business like never before in favor of humanoid robots that are still in development and a ways off from generating revenue.He is just going to abandon the car business. And somehow the stock price will stay afloat.
Tesla’s chief executive officer said Monday the company will derive about 80% of its value from Optimus, the robot initiative he first touted four years ago. Musk made the prediction shortly after Tesla published its latest “master plan,” an oft updated corporate manifesto that mentioned robots for the first time.