Tesla Bot Goal to Automate Labor

Elon Musk and Tesla revealed the vision for a general-purpose humanoid robot.

They would start with the most boring, repetitive and dangerous work. The work humans least like to do.

What is dangerous work? Installing solar power onto buildings is dangerous. Roofing is considered the fourth most dangerous job in the United States. Some of the most common hazards for roofers include slip and falls, electrocutions, and burns.

Tesla needs robots to install solar power.

Other dangerous jobs:

Mining, garbage collection and iron working is dangerous. Tesla needs to mine more materials for their batteries and cars. Steel working is needed for Tesla cars.

Logging is dangerous as is fighting wildfires.

Logging and firefighting are not something that Tesla is currently involved but it is a key part of climate change.

Delivery drivers is the seventh most dangerous job. This is clearly matches well with what Tesla is already doing. Couriers and delivery services are estimated to be a $126 billion a year business that is growing at 4% per year. Automated delivery and logistics improvement could expand this industry the way self-driving would expand taxi and trucking businesses.

Highway maintenance work is also dangerous. Boring tunnel maintenance and support would also be dangerous. Narrower utility tunnels would be useful but dangerous.

A few months ago, Hyundai bought Boston Dynamics with a valuation of $1.1 billion. Boston Dynamics was purchased by Google in 2013, then Japanese investment firm SoftBank in 2017, which bought it from Google for $100 million before injecting $37 million more in 2019. Now, Hyundai holds an 80 percent stake in the company and SoftBank retains the remaining 20 percent.

Boston Dynamics has about $50 million in revenue and about 300 employees.

Sarcos Robotics is another player with innovative robots. Sarcos thinks they can make dexterous mobile robots. They are projecting $2.7 billion in sales just five years from now. Sarcos is targeting exoskeletons and a remotely-operated humanoid-type robot that’s anchored to an aerial work platform and remotely controlled by a human.