They still have the hockey stick around as a reminder to Atlas.
Now, I’ve no love for Musk or his BS but I keep hearing that they were actors in costumes, yet they were actually remote controlled robots, like you might see at a theme park. If instead of trying to pass them off as automatonomous, AI driven robots, they were to market them as surrogates (like the movie) and focused on longer range remote connections for them that would be far less stupid. They might even sell if they weren’t associated with a dumbass.
Teslabot only needs AI control to be a viable human worker replacement. They will release it earlier than they should and there will be problems that they learn through public beta testing(see Tesla autonomous driving.)
Atlas is incubating in an internal beta so it can be exactly what they want to deliver. I honestly think Atlas is good enough to be put in the real world as-is, but I applaud their patience and desire to have as close to perfection as possible.
I expect Teslabot to retail over their $30k estimate, probably closer to $60k at turn-key. Atlas I expect to be closer to $100k or more with support contracts. Teslabot will probably be the hot product for the wealthy to act as a butler or grocery getter when paired with an autonomous Tesla. Atlas will be more commercially successful but a small number of rich nerds would totally get one to play with.
“All we’re missing is the single hardest piece, which we have been failing to make work in cars for years”
Failing to make something work and failing to make it work perfectly are entirely different things.
Autonomous driving works, but it isn’t as good as a human driver at handling abnormal conditions. They really fucked up going all visual instead of combining visual and LIDAR.
Based on my experience with how destructive a robot vacuum can be, there is 0% chance I would let a Tesla developed robot exist in my house.
I definitely would want an Atlas over the Teslabot even as a surrogate. It would fucking suck to fall down and actually have to leave your house to get back up again.
