At the Baron investment conference on November 6, Musk said Optimus will "probably be rented out" when asked whether it would be rented or sold. He said per-unit manufacturing cost would initially be around $30,000 and later fall toward $20,000, and that external deliveries would wait until late 2027 and would most likely take the form of leases.
iRobot co-founder Rodney Brooks noted that Rethink's robots look toward a target object before reaching to grasp it, which led workers to quickly understand its intent; he questioned why more humanoid robots do not use this way of expressing attention. The conversation also mentioned that Agility's Digit has directional eyes, and that Agility chose task-specific grippers rather than five-fingered hands.
Daniela Shchegelskaya, an electronics and robotics engineer at Elimpus, shares two years of experience using Boston Dynamics' Spot for hazard-zone inspections in live power substations. She argues that robots should take on tasks such as carrying instruments into hazardous locations and providing more detailed viewpoints, keeping people away from danger while preserving key judgment.
At the X Takeover event at Tesla's Texas factory, Musk criticized the humanoid robot industry, saying many complex demonstrations rely on pre-choreography and "that is not real AI"; the criterion should be whether a robot can handle situations it has never seen before. In the first half of 2026, global humanoid robot shipments exceeded 22,000 units, up nearly 300% year on year, but entertainment performances and education/science data collection together accounted for over 60%, smart manufacturing for only 13%, and warehouse logistics for only 5%.
The article rebuts the judgment that embodied AI hardware will inevitably become cheap and that all value will accrue to the "brain," arguing that the value of complete-machine makers should not be reduced to a bill of materials. It cites moves including Unitree Technology directing about 2.022 billion yuan of its roughly 4.202 billion yuan in fundraising toward model R&D, Songyan Power launching Scalabot and releasing its first world model, and Boston Dynamics appointing Rohit Prasad as CEO, showing that complete-machine makers are catching up on AI capabilities. The author proposes reassessing hardware value on three levels: businesses already underway, capabilities accumulated through delivery, and future expansion.
Boston Dynamics' Atlas humanoid robot stands 175 cm tall and weighs 90 kg, and has autonomously completed roof rack sorting at a Hyundai Motor factory. Development lead Zach Jackowski's team collects human motion data through VR teleoperation, then trains in simulation with more than 4,000 digital Atlases for 6 hours, achieving skill sharing where "train one, train them all." Boston Dynamics is valued at over $1 billion, with Hyundai Motor holding an 88% stake.
Boston Dynamics has introduced a four-fingered dexterous hand for Atlas with 13 degrees of freedom in total, nearly double the previous generation's 7; Unitree's Dex5-S, released in September, also has only 22 degrees of freedom, as the industry shifts from a specs race toward pragmatism. Xinor Future says marginal returns diminish beyond 25 degrees of freedom, and existing VLA models can output only about 10 motion control vectors at the same timestamp, so many precise movements still require teleoperation. In the near term, low-DOF options such as three- and four-fingered hands remain mainstream, and products with 7-15 degrees of freedom are seen as the best market fit at this stage.
Mark DiLeo, lead technician on Boston Dynamics' Atlas service and repair team, shares how he repairs the bipedal humanoid robot. He reveals that the worst case was when the robot fell and its leg completely split from its torso; the research version R1 requires one to two days of downtime each time it falls, while the production version D1 was designed for manufacturing and on-site customer repair, making it easier to service, and the team can usually repair it within one to two hours, getting the robot back to performing backflips.
In an interview, Boston Dynamics mechanical engineer Taylor Frey-Baker discusses the design of the electric Atlas's head and how she entered the field. She is responsible for the compute core inside the head, which houses four perception modules with stereo vision; the head's modular design allows the entire unit to be swapped out and the compute core upgraded like a game cartridge. The hydraulic Atlas did not need a head because it performed movement demonstrations, whereas the electric Atlas relies on head cameras for a wider field of view and uses lights and sound to signal its status to people nearby.
Ars Technica interviewed several robotics researchers and founders, outlining how AI is driving the development of general-purpose autonomous robots and the data, safety, and reliability obstacles they face.
In an interview, Boston Dynamics mechanical design engineer Chastity Kelly explains the foot design of the Atlas humanoid robot. The new-generation foot has a symmetric structure, with the ankle joint located at the middle of the foot; combined with knees that can bend backward, this allows Atlas to walk forward and backward without turning around. The sole has multi-directional treads to provide two-way grip and prevent slipping on factory floors. She also shares her own journey: starting at a community college, she spent 15 years earning a PhD in mechanical engineering and entering the robotics industry.