Elon Musk Says Optimus Production Will Be 'Extremely Slow' in the Beginning: 'This is Not Like Making a Car'
Elon Musk Says Optimus Production Will Be 'Extremely Slow' in the Beginning: 'This is Not Like Making a Car'.
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Elon Musk pushed back Wednesday against speculation that Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ) is ahead of schedule on production of its Optimus V3 humanoid robot, saying the company's initial ramp will be extremely slow because Tesla is building an entirely new manufacturing system.
"No, Optimus production will be extremely slow at first, as everything is new. This is not like making a car," Musk wrote in a reply on X.
No, Optimus production will be extremely slow at first, as everything is new. This is not like making a car.
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Musk was responding to an X user named Doctor Jack, who suggested Tesla may have delayed the Optimus V3 demo because the company had realized it was further ahead on production than expected and wanted to prevent competitors from copying its designs. The user predicted a major reveal with many functional robots on stage and news that meaningful production had already begun, citing earlier comments from Tesla executive Lars Moravy .
Musk's response partially countered that ahead-of-schedule theory. His comments align with his earlier warnings that Optimus production would follow a classic manufacturing S-curve, with slow early output followed by faster scaling.
Musk has said the early phase will focus on getting the assembly process right rather than chasing high volume. The difficulty stems from the robot's complexity. Optimus contains roughly 10,000 unique parts that must work together, creating many possible bottlenecks in production.
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The comment came a day after Musk posted a photo of himself standing with the Optimus production team inside Tesla's Fremont factory. The image showed Musk with his arms crossed among workers wearing hard hats and safety vests.
Tesla has converted production space at Fremont, including lines previously used for the Model S and Model X, to support initial assembly of Gen 3 Optimus robots.
Pilot production is expected to begin this summer at Fremont. A second, much larger Optimus factory is under construction at Giga Texas. High-volume production is not expected until around summer 2027, with Tesla targeting a long-term capacity of 10 million robots annually.
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Tesla and Musk have described Optimus as the company's "biggest product ever," arguing its long-term value could eventually surpass the electric vehicle business.
Tesla's near-term vehicle business will also come back into focus on Thursday when the company reports second-quarter deliveries.
Investor Gary Black of The Future Fund has projected roughly 410,000 deliveries, above consensus, while Ross Gerber of Gerber Kawasaki has said Tesla had a "solid" quarter after predicting sales could rise as higher gas prices tied to the Iran war pushed more buyers toward electric vehicles.
