Atlas Tested on Wheels, JPMorgan Sees Up to 400,000 US Humanoids by 2030, Tesla Optimus Production Begins

Boston Dynamics puts Atlas on wheels

• Boston Dynamics removed the feet of its Atlas humanoid and fitted one wheel to each leg. The wheels are off-the-shelf scooter rims attached to the ankle actuators with an adapter.
• The company said the change was about as involved as changing a bicycle tire. Wheeled Atlas is not a product but a test bed for high speeds and heavy loads, and the findings go into the standard Atlas.
• Thanks to control trained with reinforcement learning in simulation, a 360-degree jump on wheels, learned from human jump data, worked on the first try.

Source: heise – Boston Dynamics puts humanoid Atlas robot on wheels (Nov 10)

JPMorgan: 300,000–400,000 US humanoids a year by 2030

• JPMorgan expects US humanoid robot production to reach 300,000–400,000 units in 2030 and up to 1.5 million in 2035.
• It points to labor shortages, improving economics and growing production capacity, with early use in manufacturing, logistics and warehousing.
• But shortages of hardware, AI training data, computing and manufacturing output mean "near-term progress remains supply constrained." Apart from Tesla, most US makers aim for 10,000–30,000 units a year.
• The leading US platforms it named are Tesla Optimus, Agility Digit, Boston Dynamics Atlas, Figure and Apptronik Apollo.

Source: FOX 2 Detroit (via Reuters) – US humanoid robot production could hit 400,000 units by 2030 (Nov 12)

Tesla Optimus: production has started, sales are set for late 2027

• Tesla has started producing third-generation Optimus robots at its Fremont factory. It says reaching 20,000 a week is "at least a year" away.
• Elon Musk has pushed deliveries to outside customers to around the end of 2027, saying the hands, durability and AI still need work.
• He answered "No" to a report that reservations would open in December, and there is no outside sales program yet.

Source: Electrek – Tesla Optimus guide