Optimus Timeline: Tesla Targets Late 2027 for Robot Handoffs
Tesla is pushing external deliveries of its humanoid robot to the end of next year while working to resolve issues with its hands and general reliability.
By Carmen Wojcik ·
Tesla’s Optimus robot is facing another pushback, with external customer deliveries now scheduled for late 2027.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the new target during the company’s Q3 2026 earnings call. He identified three key hurdles that must be cleared before the robot is ready for outside customers: the AI, the electromechanical design, and overall reliability, specifically ensuring the robot does not wear out after a month of use. These are fundamental challenges that other companies developing humanoid robots are also facing.
Regarding production, early assembly of Optimus has begun on a high-volume line in Fremont, a facility previously used for Model S and Model X manufacturing. While most of the line designed to build a million robots annually is installed, reaching a target rate of about 20,000 units per week is expected to take at least a year or longer because the robot's design is still being modified. A Tesla Optimus engineer identified the hand and custom gears as two of the most difficult hardware areas still under development. Musk agreed that the hand is the primary issue, noting that fingers must be soft enough to handle delicate objects while also resisting constant wear, a challenge since robots cannot heal themselves.
On the software side, Tesla is working to resolve problems with its AI architecture. The company is unable to collect data from a large fleet of robots in the same way it does for its cars' Full Self-Driving system. To address this, Tesla plans to build 10,000 to 20,000 robots to participate in training exercises in a program called an Optimus Academy. The company also intends to install its AI5 chip in Optimus around April 2027. Musk has promised to release a video within a month or two demonstrating the robot performing tasks that are not pre-programmed.
This timeline has shifted before. In 2024, Musk stated that Optimus would be built for internal use in 2025 and in high volume for other companies in 2026. In January 2025, he said Tesla would build about 10,000 robots that year, with “several thousand” doing useful work by year-end, a goal he later acknowledged was not met. According to Tesla's Q3 shareholder letter, the robots now coming off the Fremont line are the first production-quality units the company has manufactured.
Musk stated that to his knowledge, “there is no one that is even close to Tesla” on general-purpose humanoid robots. This claim is difficult to reconcile with competitors' progress. XPeng activated an automated production line for its IRON robot in September, with plans for mass production by the end of 2026 and deliveries starting in the first half of 2027. Boston Dynamics began producing its electric Atlas robot in January and reports all of its 2026 deployments are committed, including one to Google DeepMind. In September, Boston Dynamics opened a robot training center at Hyundai’s Metaplant in Georgia, where Atlas is learning to sequence car parts for the assembly line. Hyundai plans to deploy 25,000 robots across its plants over the next few years.
Boston Dynamics has also taken a different approach to the hand problem, prioritizing sturdy grippers for industrial parts instead of human-like dexterity. This may be less impressive in a demonstration but offers a way around the issue Tesla says is holding it back. Tesla faces the same core problems as its competitors: building hands that can withstand real work, creating robots reliable enough to pay for themselves, and developing AI that can handle tasks it was not trained for. While Tesla may have built more robots than others, the challenge is making them useful.
