What is the name of Tesla’s humanoid robot project unveiled in 2021?

Tesla’s humanoid robot project unveiled in 2021 was called Tesla Bot.

Tesla introduced the concept at its first AI Day event on August 19, 2021. The company described a bipedal robot intended to perform repetitive, dangerous, or otherwise undesirable tasks. Tesla said the proposed machine would use artificial intelligence and hardware related to its vehicle driver-assistance work.

The presentation used a person in a costume rather than a functioning robot, making the event more of a product concept announcement than a completed demonstration. Tesla later renamed the project Optimus, a name that became associated with the company’s subsequent robot prototypes.

A common mix-up is with Optimus Prime, the fictional Transformers character. Tesla’s robot is unrelated to that franchise. The project also differs from Tesla Autopilot: Autopilot is a vehicle driver-assistance system, while Tesla Bot was proposed as a general-purpose humanoid machine.