Optimus Gen 3

Optimus Gen 3 was officially unveiled on October 22, 2025 at Tesla's Q3 earnings call (Musk described it as "a person wearing a robot suit"); on May 1, 2026 Tesla announced that Gen 3 had started volume production, with the first units rolling off the line at its Fremont, California plant and entering internal testing, making it the world's first humanoid robot programme planned for million-unit-scale production. Key production-version specifications (as relayed by media and Zhihu): height 173 cm, weight 57 kg, maximum payload 20 kg, walking speed 1.2 m/s, and a 2.3 kWh 4680 battery supporting about 10 hours of operation with 10-minute fast charging.

The most notable hardware upgrade in Gen 3 is a 22-DOF tendon-driven dexterous hand (double the previous generation), with tactile sensors at the fingertips that enable fine work such as picking up an egg or driving a screw; the compute platform has been upgraded to the AI5 chip, roughly 40 times the compute of AI4, and can run locally. It retains the Gen 2 body architecture (173 cm/57 kg); "Gen 3" mainly refers to the all-new hand and actuator systems.

Production progress: the Fremont pilot line started on January 21, 2026; in May the Model S/X line was cleared and converted (about 40,000 m²); on July 1 Musk posted a cable-routing video on X; formal volume production is expected to begin in July–August 2026, with Fremont designed for 1 million units per year and the Texas plant planned for 10 million units per year from 2027. The Shanghai Gigafactory has already deployed 50 units for automotive final assembly (seat installation, interior assembly, quality inspection and similar tasks). Deliveries to enterprise customers begin in the second half of 2026, with home users expected in 2027.