{"id":305748,"date":"2025-12-08T21:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T21:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/305748\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T21:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T21:34:10","slug":"elon-musks-optimus-robot-collapses-in-a-hilariously-suspicious-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/305748\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk’s Optimus Robot Collapses in a Hilariously Suspicious Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tesla held a special pop-up event over the weekend for Art Basel Miami Beach, the international art fair in Florida. The pop-up was dubbed<\/a> \u201cThe Future of Autonomy Visualized\u201d and reportedly featured Elon Musk\u2019s Cybercab prototype and Optimus robots. But a video from the event is going viral for all the wrong reasons. And it\u2019s pretty hilarious.<\/p>\n

The video, which appears to have first been posted to r\/teslamotors<\/a> on Reddit, shows an Optimus robot knock over several bottles of water on a table before lifting its arms into the air. The arms move in ways that would be consistent with taking off a VR headset, and then they fall heavily, with one hitting a water on the table that seems to explode and shoot water everywhere. After that, Optimus appears to go lifeless and falls backward.<\/p>\n

The video is just five seconds long, but it tells quite a funny story in that short burst of time.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s happening here? Many people online speculate that an unseen person was controlling the Optimus robot, and that person took off their headset before disconnecting. And that seems to be the most likely explanation.<\/p>\n

This kind of robotic control is called teleoperation, and it has been in existence since at least the 1940s. Sometimes called a waldo, Walt Disney showed off how he made the 1964 New York World\u2019s Fair attraction Carousel of Progress with a similar technology.<\/p>\n

\"Gif:A robot from the 1964 World\u2019s Fair attraction Carousel of Progress is demonstrated by Walt Disney and an engineer using a waldo-style manipulation device. Gif: Disney <\/p>\n

Disney and his engineers didn\u2019t have VR headsets, of course, but the basic idea is the same. Someone who can\u2019t be seen by the intended audience is manipulating controls that actually move the robot in real time.<\/p>\n

This new viral video from Art Basel isn\u2019t the first time Musk has been caught stretching the truth about his Optimus robot\u2019s capabilities. Back in January 2024, Musk posted a video showing Optimus folding a shirt<\/a>. Musk\u2019s legion of fans on X celebrated the achievement, since folding laundry is both a practical application of humanoid robotics that people have been wanting for decades, as well as a maneuver that\u2019s hard for humanoid robots to do well.<\/p>\n

But it turned out Musk wasn\u2019t being very transparent when he initially posted the video. Some eagle-eyed social media users started asking why we could see what appeared to be a hand coming briefly into frame in the lower-right corner. The hand seemed to match up perfectly with what Optimus was doing.<\/p>\n

\"Tesla'sTesla\u2019s Optimus robot folding laundry in Jan. 2024 with an annotation of a red arrow added by Gizmodo showing the human hand. GIF: Tesla \/ Gizmodo <\/p>\n

That was almost two years ago, and there have been other examples from Musk\u2019s Optimus hype machine. For example, Musk hosted an event in Los Angeles in October 2024, announcing his Cybercab concept car that he promised was just 2-3 years away. After the event, there was a party featuring Optimus robots that were pouring beers and handing them out to guests. Guests were impressed until tech evangelist Robert Scoble started asking some questions. Scoble was told that the robots were teleoperated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Tesla Diner in Los Angeles has featured Optimus robots handing out popcorn, though many people have speculated that those bots are teleoperated, as well. Tesla didn\u2019t respond to questions on Monday about whether there was someone operating Optimus at the Miami event from a remote location.<\/p>\n

Ever since the shirt-folding video, it\u2019s become pretty standard for people on social media to ask whether a given robot video shows real autonomy. There was even a period last year when just about every robot maker started slapping text on their videos to assure viewers their creations weren\u2019t being teleoperated<\/a>. Musk\u2019s showmanship and sleight of hand have naturally made people suspicious.<\/p>\n

Musk was recently asked whether a video of Optimus \u201clearning Kung Fu\u201d was autonomous. Musk replied, \u201cAI, not teleoperated.\u201d But obviously, people were skeptical given the fact that you can see a guy holding a video game controller in the background. Gizmodo couldn\u2019t independently verify that the video shows Optimus working autonomously.<\/p>\n

Tesla Optimus learning Kung Fu pic.twitter.com\/ziEuiiKWn7<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s particularly funny that Optimus would be teleoperated in Miami at an event called \u201cThe Future of Autonomy Visualized.\u201d Building autonomous robots that can work without human intervention is incredibly difficult. But there are companies like Figure<\/a> that are miles ahead of Tesla when it comes to this kind of autonomy.<\/p>\n

One commenter on X poked fun at the Art Basel mishap and sarcastically commented that they weren\u2019t worried. They insisted Musk would surely figure out how to deliver a billion robots by next year<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m not sure where @elonmusk is going to find enough teleoperator though, since the robotaxi\u2019s still need an equal number of Safety Drivers\u2026 Its gunna be a rough year.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the other thing, of course. Musk promised autonomous taxis called Robotaxi (not to be confused with the more advanced and imaginary Cybercab<\/a>) would be operating by now. But the Robotaxi service that\u2019s currently operating in Texas still has a human babysitter.<\/p>\n

Musk hasn\u2019t quite promised to produce a billion robots by 2026. He\u2019s said that Tesla will be producing 1 million<\/a> humanoid robots by 2030 and insists there will be a billion humanoid robots in the world by 2040. The Tesla CEO is promising quite a bit more than seems realistic for the near future, whether it\u2019s Optimus, the Robotaxi, or the Cybercab.<\/p>\n

Another video from the Miami event shows an Optimus robot handing out water. After the person filming grabs their water, they hand it back to Optimus. The person wants Optimus to set down<\/a> the water, presumably to see it do more movements. But Optimus is initially reluctant to do so. It\u2019s unclear why, but it might have something to do with the video that\u2019s currently going viral. It seems likely that the operator may struggle to see below them, and setting the water back down on the table could cause them to knock things over.<\/p>\n

Tesla’s Optimus was spotted hosting in Miami today.\ud83e\udd42<\/p>\n

The interaction with guests looks incredibly smooth and natural.\ud83e\udd16\ud83d\udc4b https:\/\/t.co\/n85OaSa0R4<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/oskYB2E7CV<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 RoboHub\ud83e\udd16 (@XRoboHub) December 7, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Even people who didn\u2019t see Optimus fall over seemed somewhat disappointed by the event. One attendee posted that they were expecting<\/a> a \u201cdeeper dive\u201d into how Tesla Vision works, though they otherwise seemed happy.<\/p>\n

The viral video out of Miami is also inspiring quite a few jokes on social media sites like Bluesky.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m afraid I finally have an answer for why the Tesla Optimus that was bartending at my holiday party ran its hands down its legs like it was lowering its pants and then held an invisible gun to its head before collapsing.<\/p>\n

[image or embed]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike.\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800\u2800 (@dumbmike.bsky.social<\/a>) December 8, 2025 at 8:18 AM<\/a><\/p>\n

We can\u2019t say that sci-fi movies didn\u2019t warn us. This scene from Robocop 2<\/a> comes to mind.<\/p>\n

Musk has bet the future of Tesla on AI and humanoid robots. And he famously promised that his robots would one day be babysitting your kids<\/a>. But if we\u2019re nearly two years out from the fake laundry-folding video and Optimus still can\u2019t hand out a bottle of water autonomously, it makes you wonder how quickly he can deliver humanoid robots to the masses.<\/p>\n