Has Tesla Motors' humanoid robot Optimus evolved once again?

Recently, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff visited Tesla Motors' office and casually shared a video on social media platform X featuring a brand-new Optimus robot with a "golden" appearance, instantly sparking excitement across the tech industry.

"Lead the way to find some Coke." Upon receiving this command, the golden-colored Optimus robot slowly walked toward the break room area, with humans making way for it...

This Optimus features an entirely new golden exterior design, distinctly different from any previous versions, delivering a fresh and premium visual experience.

The most striking feature in the video is this Optimus model's hand design. Compared to earlier versions, the new hands are more refined and closely resemble human hands.

Despite maintaining some mechanical characteristics in its gait, this demonstration of command comprehension and basic autonomous action capabilities led Benioff to exclaim:

"The physical intelligence revolution has begun! A robot capable of replacing $200,000-$500,000 human jobs has emerged - this is a nuclear-level productivity breakthrough."

"This could be the design prototype for Optimus 3, these hands are beautiful, virtually identical to human hands," netizens marveled, though some noted that the robot's AI reasoning speed appeared somewhat slow.

The video shows the robot didn't immediately respond to human commands until Musk, standing nearby, reminded others to make way and provide adequate space for movement...

Regarding Optimus hands, Musk previously explained: "The next-generation Optimus hands in prototype form have actuators moved to the forearm, just like humans, operating fingers through cables, similar to human hands."

This design closely mirrors the biomechanical structure of human hands. Human muscles are primarily located in the forearm, controlling finger movement through tendons. The refined hands demonstrated by this "Golden Optimus" align perfectly with Musk's described technical approach.

Compared to the version shown in Tesla Motors' popcorn-selling Optimus video released in July, not only the hands but also the "Golden Optimus" exhibits smoother and more streamlined construction in waist and knee joints, significantly reducing mechanical appearance.

Combined with Musk's preview two months ago announcing Optimus V3's imminent launch, claiming its flexibility would be "indistinguishable from humans," these details collectively reinforce speculation that this represents an early Optimus 3 generation prototype.

A video shared earlier this year by former Tesla Motors VP Milan Kovac also demonstrated Optimus's more fluid, human-like walking gait, including arm swinging, knee extension, and coordinated heel-to-toe movement, all pointing toward continuous optimization in Optimus's physical motion control.

Accelerated Technical Evolution: Dexterous Hands Achieve 22 Degrees of Freedom

Tesla Motors' dexterous hand technology has undergone three generations of evolution. The first-generation dexterous hand adopted a biomimetic five-finger structure design, featuring 11 degrees of freedom per hand, including 6 active degrees of freedom.

The third-generation dexterous hand increased degrees of freedom to 22, with active degrees of freedom rising from 6 to 17, and the drive system transitioning from internal to external mounting.

The transmission system was upgraded to a hybrid solution combining planetary gearbox + ball screw + tendon cable, replacing worm gears with ball screws and torsion springs with tendon cables, significantly improving precision, load capacity, and transmission efficiency.

80% of Tesla Motors' Value Will Come from Optimus

The appearance of this Golden Optimus wasn't coincidental. Just days earlier, Tesla Motors released "Master Plan Part Four," announcing its future bet on a more disruptive field: bringing artificial intelligence into the physical world.

That day, Musk stated on platform X that he expects approximately 80% of Tesla Motors' future value to derive from Optimus robots rather than traditional automotive business.

This statement marks Tesla Motors' comprehensive transformation from an automotive company to an "artificial intelligence + robotics" giant. Tesla Motors emphasized: "We are building products and services that bring artificial intelligence into the physical world," having conducted nearly two decades of foundational work toward this goal.

When Will Mass Production Begin?

Musk revealed that Tesla Motors plans to produce over 1,000 Optimus units in 2025, with this figure skyrocketing to 50,000 units by 2026.

Tesla Motors aims to make Optimus the "universal utility worker" for industrial scenarios, deploying at approximately $30,000 per unit to complete precision manufacturing, logistics handling, and other tasks.

However, achieving this goal won't be easy. Tesla Motors must address challenges of large-scale mass production and cost control, particularly during the initial stages.