Video of Tesla Optimus robot falling down is going viral

A strange video is circulating online showing one of Tesla’s Optimus robots malfunctioning and falling while serving drinks at an event.

The incident took place during the “Autonomy Visualized” event at the store in Miami. How? Electrician writes that Tesla’s event was advertised as a way to showcase the company’s “Autopilot technology and Optimus.”

The fallout is a potential embarrassment for Tesla chief Elon Musk, who has highlighted recent demonstrations of Optimus, including one in which the robot appears to perform Kung Fu.

“AI, not remote control,” Musk claimed in response to a video showing robots’ skills.

Musk was referring to the fact that previous Optimus showcases actually involved a human controlling the robot remotely. However, Optimus didn’t seem to be in control at the Autonomy Visualized event.

Video posted for the first time Reddit: and is now going viral on social media, including Musk himself X platform. It shows Optimus the robot serving water bottles at the event.

The robot’s arms collide with the table, causing the water bottles to fall. Then, suddenly, the robot seems to be completely out of order and falls back.

The strangest part of the video, however, may be the movements of the robot’s arms and hands as it begins to bend backwards.

The Optimus robot raises its arms up as its arms move as if it is pulling something out, rather like someone pulling a VR headset off their head.

As Electrek points out, VR headsets are exactly what Tesla’s teleoperators use to control the robots.

Headset failed won’t do be the first backward For Tesla’s Optimus robots that Musk has referred to as his “robot army”. But when it comes to assessing how effective this army will be in practice, this video is an eye-opener.

So while Musk has been promoting autonomous robots, it appears that Optimus could still work remotely, at least during public events aimed at promoting their autonomy.