Elon Musk says Tesla's 'Optimus' robot could one day outsell its cars

Elon Musk has described Tesla's humanoid robot as the most important product it is developing in 2022, with the potential to be "more significant" than the company's car business. The as-yet unreleased Optimus robot is being built to serve as a general purpose robot, though early versions will have more limited factory-based applications. Mr Musk said during an earnings call on Wednesday that a working prototype of the Tesla bot will be unveiled at some point this year. The world's most valuable auto manufacturer is designing Optimus in a humanoid form in order for it to carry out everyday human tasks, such as shopping in a supermarket. "Essentially in the future, physical work will be a choice. If you want to do it you can, but you won't need to do it," Mr Musk said during the Tesla AI Day last August.