Tesla’s latest video update on its Optimus humanoid robot has sparked widespread attention, as the machine is seen performing household chores using simple voice instructions, marking what Elon Musk calls a major step forward in autonomous robotics.
Posted on May 20, 2025, by the Tesla Optimus X account on X, the footage shows the robot picking up a trash bag, opening a bin lid, and placing the bag inside. It then follows another prompt to “pick up the brush and dustpan, clean the table,” easily sweeping food scraps into the pan.
Other scenes show the robot tearing a paper towel from a roll, stirring food in a pot, vacuuming, organizing objects on a dolly, pressing a microwave button, and closing a curtain. Tesla says all tasks were done using a “single neural net” trained on human demonstration videos.
The video is the robot’s most advanced demonstration, showing smoother execution and more complex task combinations than previous public tests.
Tesla says Optimus was trained using first-person footage of people performing everyday actions. This method allows the robot to learn behaviors directly and adapt quickly.
I’m not just dancing all day, ok pic.twitter.com/rKs5WwKjvf
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) May 21, 2025
Milan Kovac, Tesla’s vice president for the Optimus project, said the team recently had a breakthrough. “One of our goals is to have Optimus learn straight from internet videos of humans doing tasks,” he posted on X, noting that this significantly improves the training pace compared to earlier teleoperated approaches.
One of our goals is to have Optimus learn straight from internet videos of humans doing tasks. Those are often 3rd person views captured by random cameras etc. ⁰⁰We recently had a significant breakthrough along that journey, and can now transfer a big chunk of the learning… https://t.co/09cSJ8QNwr
— Milan Kovac (@_milankovac_) May 21, 2025
He added that one of the team’s goals is to train Optimus using third-person internet videos. “Next: expand to 3rd person video transfer (aka random internet), and push reliability via self-play (RL) in the real-, and/or synthetic- (sim/world models) world,” Kovac wrote.
The robot operates using a single neural network, allowing it to multitask and follow spoken or written instructions without needing separate models for each activity.
The video surpassed 1.6 million views within 10 hours. Reactions on X were largely positive, with many users praising the progress. “Amazing! Love these updates. Keep them coming,” one viewer wrote.
Others questioned how skills might be shared between units or adapted to different household environments.
At a recent conference, Tesla CEO Elon Musk described Optimus as “the biggest product of all time,” predicting it could surpass every invention to date in impact. “I think it will be 10 times bigger than the next biggest product ever made, like that level,” Musk said.
ELON: OPTIMUS WILL BE THE BIGGEST PRODUCT OF ALL TIME
“The only company with all the ingredients for making intelligent humanoid robots at scale is Tesla.
This is a super big deal.
My prediction on this front is that Optimus will be the biggest product of all time by far.… https://t.co/jcCzS5gVBk pic.twitter.com/hC5C0gNSvI
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 21, 2025
He added that Tesla has all the pieces needed to scale humanoid robots and said the company plans to begin deploying Optimus in its factories by the end of the year. Mass production could reach millions of units annually within four to five years. Musk called the expected demand “insatiable.”
