Musk's robots hit the streets to sell popcorn and even play tricks on customers.

Elon Musk's robot has started to play tricks on people (doge)!

In the video, the young man reached out his tentative hand right from the start:

As it turned out, the robot didn't hold back. After quietly filling the popcorn, it launched a wave of "revenge" - repeatedly teasing the young man when he reached for the popcorn.

After the tug - of - war, the two sides finally decided to make peace. They gave each other thumbs - up and waved goodbye!

The above mini - drama was starred by Tesla's Optimus robot. Judging from the videos shared by netizens, it has been selling popcorn in front of restaurants recently.

Moreover, those with sharp eyes must have noticed that this robot is not the golden one that has been in the spotlight recently, but the all - black version.

It seems that Optimus has been into changing its appearance lately. This time, it's going for the gothic and dark style (manual doge face).

However, joking aside, Optimus' recent series of new moves have indeed caught people's attention:

First, a cool golden version, possibly the third - generation Optimus, was exposed (not only did it have a completely new look, but its hand design was very close to that of a human). Then, it opened a Weibo account in the Chinese market. Now, it's out on the streets selling popcorn.

Isn't this another way of saying "a small step for the robot, a big step for human life"?~

It Can Even Do the Peace Sign for Photos

From the videos of Optimus selling popcorn from different angles, this guy has really "come to life".

When facing curious kids who came up, it not only gently handed out popcorn (after all, some kids might really cry if teased), but also actively did the peace sign during the photo - taking session.

Waving goodbye is a standard service that every customer can experience:

However, although the robot has taken over another human job, there is still the old - fashioned problem - remote control.

Although the official hasn't mentioned remote control, netizens are no strangers to the scenario where Tesla's Optimus uses remote control in some demonstrations.

To be fair, even if it is really remotely controlled, the low latency shown by Optimus is still impressive. Using it as an NPC to attract customers is also a good idea.

After talking about this "Gothic Optimus", let's turn our attention to the recently popular golden Optimus.

This robot was first exposed in a tweet by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff. In a video of over 50 seconds, he asked the golden Optimus to lead the way to find Coke. So far, the video has attracted over 2.6 million views.

From the discussions among netizens, apart from its eye - catching appearance color, the simplicity and smoothness of its overall design, the anthropomorphism of its hands, and its high price are all highlights.

Different from the common mechanical hands of humanoid robots, the hands of this golden Optimus are more like those of a mannequin.

Since the video didn't show the hand movements, its flexibility is unknown. Some netizens even think that its hands are just for decoration.

Moreover, its price of $200,000 - $500,000 has shocked many netizens, far higher than the mass - production target price of $20,000 - $30,000 that Musk had previously announced.

However, the greatest significance of this robot may lie in its gradual departure from bulkiness. The official even sent out a tweet about it:

It may not be obvious at first glance, but when compared with the previous generations of Optimus, this point becomes more evident.

This also makes us think of a poster of a humanoid robot recently released by Unitree - the 180 Ballet Robot, which also emphasizes agility and elegance.

In short, robots change their forms (such as "losing weight") to save power, be more flexible, useful, and safe. However, the challenge lies in being both light and strong, and both stable and flexible, which tests the level of material science and control algorithms.

By the way, the golden version is not the third - generation Optimus that people initially speculated.

Although Musk revealed some information about Optimus V3 in June this year, regarding the above evolution chart, he directly stated:

We haven't shown Optimus V3 yet. The last two are V2 and V2.5 respectively.

Based on this, when we compare it with the one selling popcorn at the beginning, it seems that it is the V2 version with a new look.

Two More Things

Regarding robots, after Tesla released the "Master Plan 4" some time ago, Musk revealed:

80% of Tesla's future value will come from Optimus.

With this statement, netizens with wild imaginations quickly created a concept video.

Accompanying ladies shopping, carrying bags, walking dogs, cooking, and doing laundry... All kinds of fancy uses of robots are in this video:

Moreover, while Tesla's Optimus was selling popcorn on the streets, there was also new news on our domestic front - XPeng's first robot "Iron" made its debut at the Munich Auto Show.

Image source: XPeng Motors official website

It is reported that Iron demonstrated how to make pour - over coffee on - site. The official demo is as follows:

According to CEO He Xiaopeng, they plan to launch a mass - producible robot in 2026, which can have offline conversations and act autonomously.

Reference Links

[1]https://x.com/LinkN01/status/1964998552331125110

[2]https://x.com/Tesla_Optimus/status/1964471580123443538

[3]https://x.com/Tesla_Optimus/status/1964375742244147493

[4]https://x.com/herbertong/status/1965054065622315234

This article is from the WeChat official account "QbitAI", author: Yishui. 36Kr is published with authorization.