What Tesla’s Robot Tells Us About Bias in Design

In early October, Tesla demo’d Optimus, its humanoid robot. Optimus’ clunky attempts at something like a dance seemed less advanced than other humanoid robots, such as Honda’s ASIMO, which played soccer with former President Barack Obama back in 2014. Watching the long video of the demo, I was astounded to hear Elon Musk and his engineers make statements that echo what Japanese engineers said back in the ’80s : the need for “biologically inspired design” to create a multipurpose machine, the promise that robotic workers will liberate us from the dread of work and bring overall happiness and prosperity in 10 to 15 years, and the desire to have a robotic companion, to name a few. This episode in the history of Japanese robotics explains why, despite the engineering challenges of making a top-heavy machine walk on two legs, Tesla’s engineers made Optimus humanoid. In response to a question about whether future versions of Optimus will be able to “laugh at our jokes while folding our clothes,” Musk answered with a statement that could have easily come from a 1980s Japanese engineer: His goal, he said, was to create a robot that not only performs tasks but also serves as “a kind of a buddy.” Optimus’ relatively low intended retail price reveals that Tesla’s strategy is to create a consumer product for small, service-sector businesses, and ultimately, individual households.