Tesla AI boss tells staff 2026 will be the 'hardest year' of their lives in all-hands meeting - Business Insider
Leaders from across the AI division spoke to staffers during the nearly two-hour meeting, insiders said. Workers were given aggressive timelines for Optimus production, as well as targets for Tesla's Robotaxi service.
Key takeaways
Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus remains in development, with the company showcasing increasingly sophisticated hand prototypes but keeping the full V3 iteration under wraps. At the recent shareholder and all‑hands meetings, Elon Musk reiterated that Optimus is intended to out‑perform human labor by a factor of five, operate 24/7 and eventually enable a universal basic income, even claiming the robot could “eliminate poverty.” He also emphasized that the robot’s dexterous hand is a critical hurdle that Tesla believes only it can solve at scale. Tesla’s AI chief warned that 2026 will be the “hardest year” for staff as the firm pushes aggressive production targets, aiming to ramp up to an annualized output of one million Optimus units alongside its Robotaxi rollout. While the robot has performed public demos—handing out candy on Halloween and doing a brief Kung Fu routine with actor Jared Leto—it is not yet ready for
Leaders from across the AI division spoke to staffers during the nearly two-hour meeting, insiders said.
Workers were given aggressive timelines for Optimus production, as well as targets for Tesla's Robotaxi service. As Tesla races to launch Robotaxis across the nation and ramp up production of the company's humanoid robot, the two divisions are at the center of CEO Elon Musk's biggest bets.
Elluswamy and a spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. "That production ramp will take a while to get to annualized rate of 1 million because it's going to move as fast as the slowest, dumbest, least lucky thing out of 10,000 unique items," he said in the October call.
Tesla shareholders approved a pay package for Musk earlier this month that could make the Tesla CEO the world's first trillionaire. It includes several ambitious Robotaxi and Optimus milestones, including deploying 1 million Robotaxis on public roads and 1 million humanoid robots. Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy warned his staff 2026 will be a difficult year in an all-hands. Tesla has aggressive timelines set for Optimus robot production and Robotaxi service expansion. Elon Musk's pay package hinges on Robotaxi and Optimus success.
If you work on Tesla's AI teams, next year will be the "hardest year" of your life.
Mentioned in this article