Optimus, the humanoid robot created by Elon Musk’s Tesla, has some new moves, showing just how far robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) have progressed.
Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, displayed its latest tricks in a video uploaded to Elon Musk’s platform X.
The video, captioned “was just getting warmed up,” shows Optimus engaging in different dance styles, demonstrating a new level of balance and agility.
Optimus first takes on a ballet style, raising its leg and doing something similar to an arabesque.
The humanoid robot then does the running man in a pretty fluid motion. Along with these styles, Optimus does a lot of footwork, even pirouetting around without losing its balance.
Optimus can hop from one leg to the other and coordinate both its arms and legs simultaneously.
Was just getting warmed up https://t.co/dN6rSXiLVS pic.twitter.com/JbJ8TxyaAz
undefined Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) May 14, 2025
Milan Kovac, the head of engineering for Optimus, added context about the video, stating that there’s “a little more, and no cables this time.”
Kovac explains that this video is in real speed, showing just how rapidly the robot is moving.
There’s also no CGI involved, meaning that no special effects were used to artificially enhance the robot's moves.
“Besides the fact that it's fun, we had to make significant improvements to our robot model in Sim, domain randomization, and other techniques, which will directly transfer to more practical situations as well (robust walking, and agile full-body control in general),” Kovac explained.
Kovac is saying that while this is fun, many design tweaks were made – such as adjusting environments – to better prepare Optimus for real-world situations.
Here's a little more, and no cables this time ;)
undefined Milan Kovac (@milankovac) May 14, 2025
It's all real-time speed, zero CGI, fully learned in Simulation & zero-shot transferred to real.
Besides the fact that it's fun, we had to make significant improvements to our robot model in Sim, domain randomization and other… https://t.co/Fhnm84vDQE
One user asked Grok to synthesize and explain Kovac’s explanation in the comments section. Musk’s artificial intelligence model expanded on some of the technical language Kovac used.
It said that Optimus has “fully learned in simulation,” which means that it learns movements like dances through a virtual environment, similar to a video game, where it’s safe and fast to practice.”
“Zero-shot transferred to real” refers to tasks performed in the real world on the first try, meaning that this would’ve been tested there and then without additional training.
X users were stunned by Optimus’s agility and development, with some questioning whether these types of robots are necessary.
“Very impressive, and you are still developing Optimus! Can’t wait to see how much more you can do in the next 6 months,” said one user.
Another user asked, “What is actually the point of having a humanoid robot? Will it be a general-purpose problem solver? And what could it do? And wouldn’t it be better to make robots tailored to those problems?”
Other users have questions about additional weight and how this might affect Optimus.
“Would throwing a backpack on Optimus while dancing throw the bot off balance? Or is balance control done separately from the dance?” One person asked.
Cybernews reported on the last video uploaded to the Optimus X account, where developers revealed that the humanoid robot has a new hand upgrade.
Kovac explained the upgraded features that come with the humanoid android’s new arm.
Optimus’s new hand and forearm have double the number of degrees of freedom than previous robots.
“There’s 22 degrees of freedom on the hand and three on the wrist/forearm,” Kovac said in a post on X.
In the context of hands, degrees of freedom refer to joint movement. For example, a human hand has 27 degrees of freedom, which means that Optimus may be close to matching human dexterity.
22 degrees of freedom is also a major upgrade from Optimus, as its previous hand had only 11 degrees of freedom.
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