New Robot Factory Line Goes Live, Aiming for Huge Output

Tesla has started building Optimus robots on a new high-volume line inside its Fremont factory, and the company says the units coming off it are the first that meet the bar for a real product.

The line occupies the space that assembled the Model S and Model X until this spring. Tesla cleared that old vehicle line in 46 days to make way for robot production, which is sized for one million units a year. In a statement included in its third quarter shareholder letter, the company said it has “proven that the current manufacturing process for Optimus is suitable for a commercial product.”

During its earnings call on Wednesday, Elon Musk said that most of the equipment needed for that capacity is already in Fremont, with output set to climb toward roughly 20,000 robots a week as the line ramps up. He described the ramp as a classic S curve, noting, “The growth of Optimus is an S curve, but the initial curve is a shallow slope.” The team is now working to refine the robot’s AI, electromechanical design, reliability, and service life, and Musk expects that work to be finished by the end of next year.

At that point, Tesla plans to start delivering Optimus to outside companies for dangerous, repetitive, and around-the-clock jobs. A key part of getting to that stage involves training the machines. While its cars send real driving data back to the AI team from millions of vehicles, Optimus has no fleet like that yet. “A big difference with Optimus versus the cars is we don’t have this vast fleet of cars from which we can gather training data,” Musk said.

To address that, Tesla is creating an Optimus Academy, where 10,000 to 20,000 robots will practice a wide range of tasks and feed what they learn into the next version of the model. Every unit off the Fremont line becomes a source of that training data. Smarter hardware is also on the way. Tesla plans to put its AI5 chip into Optimus next year, and Musk said a new Optimus video should arrive within one or two months showing the robot completing tasks driven by AI rather than preprogrammed motions.

He also took aim at rival humanoid demos that only run scripted routines, saying those would not hold up in the real world. The supply chain is lining up behind the program. In September, Tesla certified Tuopu, Joyson, and Sanhua as mass production partners for Optimus components. A far larger Optimus factory is also rising at Giga Texas, where drone footage shows the steel frame nearing completion, and Musk has pegged that plant’s long-term target at 10 million robots a year.

Tesla executives also said Optimus production costs are trending toward the expected manufacturing cost of Cybercab, a sign the robot is being engineered for volume from the start. The hands remain the toughest piece of the design, a point Musk also made at the X Takeover event earlier this month, and that is where much of the current engineering effort is focused.

Looking ahead, the immediate priority is completing the refinement work on the robot's design and AI by the end of next year. This will prepare the company for the planned delivery of Optimus to outside companies for tasks such as dangerous, repetitive, and around-the-clock work.

Concurrently, the company will be ramping production on the new Fremont line toward its capacity of one million units per year. The training data collected from the Optimus Academy will be used to improve future versions of the robot's model.