Yes, there were humans controlling Tesla’s bartending robots behind the scenes

• Tesla's robots serving drinks and talking to guests at the "We Robot" were partly controlled by humans.
• The robots' performance quickly raised skepticism about their true capabilities and independence.
• Tesla plans to deploy the robots in its factories and sell them to both companies and consumers.

Tesla's robots might have wowed viewers at its "We Robot" event Thursday by serving drinks, answering questions, and playing rock-paper-scissors, but people were quick to suspect that the performance was too good to be true.

It turns out they were right.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk proudly showed off the latest version of his Optimus robots, which were last seen in September sorting blocks and doing yoga poses, during the event. Musk, who said Tesla had been making progress on the humanoid robots, predicted they would become "the biggest product ever of any kind."

The robots walked into the spotlight closely flanked by Tesla engineers.

"One of the things we wanted to show tonight is that Optimus is not a canned video, it's not walled off," Musk said. "The Optimus robots will walk among you. Please be nice to the Optimus robots. So you'll be able to walk right up to them and they'll serve drinks at the bar."

Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note on Friday that the robots weren't fully operating independently and "relied on tele-ops," or humans controlling them behind the scenes.

"Overall, we did not pick up on anything new/novel about Optimus that clearly showed significant progress," the analysts wrote. "Including little incremental detail from the company that the market was not previously aware of. "

Videos of guests' interactions with the Optimus robots posted online underscored that humans were involved.

One attendee posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, asking an Optimus robot operating a beer tap if it was remote-controlled, to which it responded that it was "assisted by a human."

"I'm not yet fully autonomous," the voice said, with a human-sounding trip over the word "autonomous."

Another video showed a guest trying to get the robot to reveal how much of it was actually AI and not a human. "I can't disclose just how much, that's something you'll have to find out later," the voice said. "I would say, it might be some. I'm not going to confirm, but it might be some."

Although some commenters felt the human assistance was "obvious," others said that Tesla's presentation was misleading.

Tesla influencer Jeremy Judkins wrote on X that he didn't realize the bots were human-controlled until after the event, saying Tesla "misled millions of people" who watched the livestream.

Josh Wolfe, cofounder of Lux Capital, also seemed to disapprove.

"Totally worthy to celebrate low latency remote control but totally dishonest to demo these as autonomous robots—call it the parlor trick it is," he wrote.

Tesla did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Musk said he envisions a future where "Optimus robots will walk among you." The Tesla CEO expects it to become a household companion, likening it to a personal "Star Wars" R2-D2 or C3-PO that can pick up your groceries and babysit your kids.

Musk, who has said he is "pathologically optimistic," has also said that Optimus will boost Tesla's valuation into the trillions.

Tesla has said it's already deployed two Optimus robots on its factory floor, though it is unclear what tasks they are completing. Tesla has said the humanoid robots will eventually be sold to both companies and consumers.

Musk predicted an eventual price tag of $20,000 to $30,000 price tag — "probably less than a car"— when manufactured at scale, which he said would take some time.

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