Davos: What Did Tesla’s Musk Say About Self-Driving Cars? - EV Magazine
According to Elon, this transition will transform the nature of labour, as "everyone on Earth" will eventually seek robotic assistance for domestic and industrial tasks.
Key takeaways
The most recent developments in humanoid robotics show a surge of commercial launches and strategic partnerships. Chinese startup LimX Dynamics announced that its three‑year plan to ship several thousand humanoid units to the Middle East is now underway, and it is exploring collaborations to bring the robots to the United States after a CES showcase; the company also unveiled its agentic‑AI operating system, COSA, which lets robots adjust body motion in real time. Italian firm Oversonic Robotics introduced its cognitive humanoid RoBee to the U.S. market, targeting healthcare, care services and aerospace, and announced a new, undisclosed North‑American partnership to accelerate deployments. In the United States, Fauna Robotics debuted Sprout, a 3.5‑foot, soft‑exterior humanoid designed for homes, schools and social spaces, emphasizing approachable interaction and multimodal control via game‑controller, phone app and VR headset. Meanwhile, South‑Korean actuator specialist Tesollo released the DG‑5F‑S, a compact, lightweight five‑finger hand with 20 DoF intended to ease integration of dexterous hands into humanoid platforms. British startup Humanoid reported roughly 25,000 pre‑orders for its service robot HMND 01 and demonstrated its bipedal Atlas model at CES 2026, highlighting rapid development cycles powered by AI advances. Chinese leader Agibot, ranked No. 1 globally by Omdia with a 39 % market share, launched operations in Malaysia, underscoring its dominance after shipping over 5,100 units in 2025. Hyundai’s Q4 earnings were hit by U.S. tariffs, but investors responded positively to the company’s partnership with Boston Dynamics on the Atlas humanoid, slated for deployment in Hyundai’s Savannah EV plant by 2028. Finally, Elon Musk reiterated that Tesla’s Optimus robot is transitioning from factory prototypes to a consumer product, projecting broader task capability by the end of 2026 and public sales by late 2026.
According to Elon, this transition will transform the nature of labour, as "everyone on Earth" will eventually seek robotic assistance for domestic and industrial tasks.
Optimus humanoids launching next year
Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus, is expected to move from factory prototype to consumer product shortly.
Elon revealed that Optimus is currently performing "simple tasks in the factory," but he expects more sophisticated capabilities soon.
"By the end of this year, I think they will be doing more complex tasks, and probably by the end of next year, I think we'd be selling humanoid robots to the public," he said.
He expressed confidence that by late 2026, the robots would have "very high reliability" and be capable of performing almost any task requested by a human owner. ## Robots assisting in daily life
Elon highlighted the potential for humanoid robots to address social challenges, such as elder care in ageing populations.
He suggested that robots could provide essential support in societies where there are insufficient young people to care for older citizens.
"Who wouldn't want a robot to, assuming it's very safe, watch over your kids, take care of your pets?" he asked the audience.
He framed the technology as a domestic utility, predicting that the demand for robots to care for "older parents or children" would make them a staple in households worldwide, fundamentally reducing the burden of manual work.
Avoiding a Terminator-style future
Despite his optimism, Elon issued a warning regarding the safety of advanced robotics. He said: "We need to be very careful with robotics. We don't want to find ourselves in a James Cameron movie.
“Love his movies, but we don't want to be in Terminator, obviously."
Elon emphasised that safety remains a prerequisite for the public adoption of humanoid robots.
This caution comes as his own AI startup, xAI, faces scrutiny from international regulators over "sexually explicit content" generated by its Grok chatbot, leading to demands for tighter safeguards.
Solving the problem of ageing
In his concluding remarks, the business leader touched upon human biology, describing ageing as "a very solvable problem".
He predicted that once the biological cause of ageing is fully identified, the solution will be "incredibly obvious" to the scientific community.
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