After three design iterations, Tesla’s humanoid Optimus has reached the eve of mass production. This Monday the company’s annual shareholder materials confirmed in writing for the first time that the third-generation Optimus is ready for large-scale production, though Tesla has not yet named a date.
Tesla’s record in electric vehicles, from the Model S that proved premium EVs were real to the Model 3 that proved the market was vast, made it a global tech pioneer. Many now believe Optimus will reshape humanoids the way the cars did. But can Tesla actually lead robotics?
The industry faces three hurdles, and Tesla has cleared none of them. Dexterous hands, supply chain and the embodied brain remain unsolved by any company. Skyworth founder Huang Hongsheng has argued that not one of hundreds of robot firms is profitable, and the spectacle we see is investors pricing the future.
Take dexterous hands. After a parameter arms race, high-end hands commonly offer 20-plus degrees of freedom, yet high cost and weak durability keep manufacturers away. Musk has noted finger sensors sit too close to the surface and damage easily, and must adapt to the finger’s elastic deformation to sense touch and force.
Supply chain and embodied brain stay open problems. The reality behind the optimism is that Tesla is now chasing the pace Chinese firms have set in humanoids, not the other way around.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original OFweek report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience. The full original (in Chinese) is at https://robot.ofweek.com/2026-10/ART-898890-8420-30708170.html.