‘I, Robot’ director complains about Tesla’s ‘We, Robot’ event
The comparison he posted on X does indeed show obvious similarities. “Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please?” writes Alex Proyas. Ok, the autonomous car in which actor Will Smith was travelling was designed in cooperation with Audi at the time – and was called the Audi RSQ. However, the similarity between the autonomous van in the film and Tesla’s Robovan cannot be dismissed entirely. Incidentally, Tesla had named its event ‘We, Robot’ – clearly in reference to the film in question.
Proyas received not only encouragement at X but also some criticism. The design of the humanoid robots in his film was based on those in the film Metropolis, the buses are similar to locomotives from the Art Deco era, and the 1939 Düsenberg Coupé could have inspired the cars, argues one user. Another responded to Proyas: “Be honored. What you did with CGI and a green screen, @elonmusk did in reality.”
However, Elon Musk apparently didn’t quite manage to bring Troyas CGI effects to life. As insiders told Bloomberg, the Optimus robots used at the event by Tesla as bartenders and dancers, among other things, did not act completely autonomously by any means – but were in part remote-controlled by humans, according to the allegation. This cannot be verified at present. Nevertheless, the Optimus prototypes ran without a hitch. So that supposedly worked. However, the bartender’s movements probably still needed some assistance.
Bloomberg also reports that the use of the humanoid robots at the event was not actually planned at all – until Elon Musk requested it around three weeks before 10 October. “The late notice meant there wasn’t time to get the software up to speed, making remote operation necessary, the person said,” Bloomberg writes.
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