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Fortune
Fortune
Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez

Tesla promotes Optimus as its next big breakthrough, but one robot's collapse has sparked doubts about their current level of autonomy

An Optimus robot serving in a restaurant (Credit: Patrick T. Fallon—AFP via Getty Images)

Elon Musk and Tesla are touting the company’s Optimus robot as its next revolutionary moneymaker, but after several incidents, some are questioning how autonomous it actually is.

During an event titled Autonomy Visualized at a Tesla location in Miami over the weekend, one of the humanoid robots handing out water bottles fell backward after making upward motions toward its head with both hands, according to a video posted to Reddit. (This incident was shortly after Russia debuted its first AI-powered robot, which similarly fell onstage at an event.) The Tesla event was meant to show off its “Autopilot technology and Optimus,” Electrek reported.

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