Tesla ramps Optimus to hundreds a week as hands and training lag

Tesla was building several hundred Optimus humanoids a week at its Fremont factory in August, about ten times the small batch it turned out in the second quarter, Electrek reported. Managers are aiming for a line that can run past 1,000 robots a week by the end of 2026, with a later target near 20,000 a week.

The line sits in space that used to build the Model S and Model X. Line workers and engineers were moved onto Optimus after those cars stopped in May. The V3 robots on the line now are not the version Tesla says it will sell. Customer units still have to meet a higher bar for durability.

Inside Tesla’s own factories the robots are limited to controlled, supervised areas and programmed for specific jobs. Learning a basic movement can still take days. The Information, cited by Electrek and Ars Technica, also reported that some factory workers in Texas and California pushed back on wearing motion suits to train a robot they believed was meant to replace them. Tesla moved that recording work to dedicated teams.