Tesla Bot Optimus Gen 3 to cost less than a car, confirms Elon Musk

The humanoid market is growing exponentially, adding new players every day. Though Tesla remains one of the biggest and most popular humanoid developers. Its latest offering, Tesla Bot Optimus Gen 3, could be the game changer if released at the expected price.

Elon Musk, when asked about the cost of Tesla Bot Optimus Gen 3 during an event, said,

It is expected to cost much less than a car. I would say, probably less than $20,000.

This revelation by Musk, if true, could significantly alter the dynamics of the humanoid market, giving Tesla an early lead and allowing it to capture a large section of the user base.

Typically, humanoids similar to Tesla Bot Optimus Gen 3 are priced in the $100,000-$150,000 range. Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot costs $150,000, and Xiaomi’s CyberOne is expected to cost between $89,000 and $105,000.

The only humanoid in Tesla Bot Optimus Gen 3’s price range is Kepler, which may cost anywhere between $20,000 and $30,000, and mass production should commence later this year, a few months before Tesla.

Will Tesla Bot Optimus Gen 3 cost $20,000?

If history teaches us anything, we can’t take Elon Musk’s statements regarding the pricing of Tesla Bot Optimus Gen 3 at face value, meaning the humanoid could be priced higher when it hits the market. Experts have different opinions on how much higher it would be!

Farzad Mesbahi, an expert in the field, believes that Tesla Bot Optimus Gen 3 should likely cost $25,000-$50,000. He pegs the sales numbers at 20 million/annually by 2030.

Others are of the opinion that the Tesla humanoid robot should ideally be placed in the $50,000 to $85,000 range. They believe that if Tesla Bot Optimus Gen 3 can be sold at, say, $70,000, given the pricing of rival products, why should Tesla go with a lower price tag.

While this may be a viable approach, higher prices would keep Tesla’s innovation away from the middle class and industries that want to deploy it for trivial tasks (with zero or low financial returns).

On the other hand, a lower price tag, coupled with Tesla’s popularity, would allow Bot Optimus Gen 3 to find massive applications in households and industries.

Whichever way Tesla goes, it has to be quick with the decisions because other tech giants are fast catching up.

Last month, Microsoft and OpenAI invested $500M in FigureAI, a Tesla competitor developing humanoids. FigureAI has signed another deal with BMW to deploy its Figure 01, an AI-powered robot that can communicate, in the automaker’s factories.

Besides, transitioning from the development to the mass production phase takes time. For Boston Dynamics, the makers of Atlas, it took roughly 28 years, from 1992 to 2020.

What do you think would be the right cost for Tesla Bot Optimus Gen 3? Share with our readers in the comments section.