Optimus: Deliveries Shifted to Late 2027 Amid Hardware Concerns

Tesla's humanoid robot program faces significant engineering hurdles that have pushed external deliveries to late 2027. On the company's Q3 2026 earnings call, Elon Musk outlined ongoing issues regarding the robot's hands, overall durability, and artificial intelligence capabilities that must be resolved before the product can ship to outside customers.

Early production of Optimus has commenced on a high-volume line in Fremont, formerly used for Model S and Model X manufacturing. While a significant portion of the line designed for 1 million units annually is installed, Musk indicated it will take at least a year, possibly longer, to reach the target rate of 20,000 units per week. He attributed this pace to ongoing design modifications, specifically citing the electromechanical design, reliability concerns such as preventing wear after one month of use, and AI architecture issues.

An engineer on the call identified the hand as one of the most difficult hardware areas, along with custom gears that carry reliability concerns. Musk acknowledged the hand as the main issue, noting that fingers must be soft enough for delicate objects yet durable enough to withstand constant wear, a challenge complicated by the fact that robots cannot heal like human skin. Tesla plans to build 10,000 to 20,000 robots for an Optimus Academy to practice tasks, and intends to install the AI5 chip in Optimus around April 2027.

Tesla's Q3 shareholder letter describes the current units as the first production-quality bots manufactured. The company has not yet shipped a robot to a paying customer. In previous years, Musk stated that Tesla would build Optimus for internal use in 2025 and in high volume for other companies in 2026, and in January 2025 he projected building about 10,000 robots that year with several thousand doing useful work by year-end.

Musk asserted that no other company is close to Tesla in terms of general-purpose humanoid robots. However, competitor activity suggests a tight race. XPeng activated an automated production line in Guangzhou in September with over 80% of core processes automated. XPeng plans mass production by the end of 2026, deliveries in the first half of 2027, and a European rollout in the second half of 2027.

Boston Dynamics began producing its electric Atlas in January and reports all 20,26 deployments are committed, including work with Google DeepMind. In September, the company opened a training center at Hyundai's Metaplant in Georgia to learn assembly line tasks. Hyundai plans to deploy 25,000 robots across its plants over the next few years. Boston Dynamics also hired Milan Kovac, Tesla's former head of Optimus, in January.

Both XPeng and Boston Dynamics are addressing similar challenges regarding hands and reliability. XPeng's IRON robot features 21 degrees of freedom in each hand and runs on three in-house Turing chips, while Boston Dynamics prioritizes sturdy grippers for industrial parts over human-like dexterity. Tesla plans to release a video within a month or two showing Optimus performing tasks that are not pre-programmed.