Tesla pushes Optimus external deliveries to late 2027 — Musk says hands are the hardest problem
After the Q3 call Musk pointed to external Optimus deliveries around end-2027, and reaching ~20,000 units/week will take at least a year — monetizing the robot business is still a long way off.
Electrek reports Musk said after the Q3 call that Tesla will start delivering Optimus to outside customers around the end of 2027, first for dangerous, repetitive or round-the-clock industrial work.
Early production has started on the Fremont high-volume line, mostly installed for a million robots a year. Reaching about 20,000 units a week will take at least a year, possibly longer, as parts of the design keep changing. Tesla's Q3 shareholder letter called the Fremont-line bots the first production-quality bots it has made.
The hand is the hardest hardware area, with custom gears raising reliability concerns. On AI, Tesla lacks a car-style data fleet, so it plans 10,000–20,000 robots practicing in an "Optimus Academy." The AI5 chip is planned for Optimus around April 2027, and Musk promised a video of non-pre-programmed tasks within a month or two.
Electrek also noted earlier missed timelines, including the 2024 claim of high-volume production for other companies in 2026 and January 2025's ~10,000-robot target.
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