HUMANOIDS · OCT 10, 2026
Musk says Tesla Optimus hands are hard, early output will be slow
In an October 10 interview, Musk described the hand engineering problems holding back Optimus. Tesla still has no price, order page or public sale date.
By Riley Hart · 2 sources linked below
If you are waiting for a Tesla robot at home, nothing has moved closer. Musk's own description points to a slow start, and Tesla has disclosed no outside customers or consumer sales. The tracker status for Optimus stays at announced.
Elon Musk spoke about Optimus by video call at the X Takeover event on Saturday, October 10, 2026, an interview hosted by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley. Benzinga and Humanoids Daily covered his remarks on October 13.
Musk focused on the hands. He said fingers must handle tiny objects precisely and also push with real force, and that touch sensors have to survive being flexed thousands of times. Benzinga quotes him calling humanlike robot hands "shockingly difficult." His examples included driving a screw into wood and opening a jar, where the rubber finger covering slipped under torque.
He said he still expects very high eventual volume but warned that the early ramp will be slow. Humanoids Daily reports he said China's limits on motor magnet exports set the program back two to three months last year, leaving Tesla with robots that had no arms. Tesla wants the option to make all parts in the US, which is a goal, not a finished supply chain.
Benzinga notes that Tesla said in January it planned to start producing third generation Optimus before the end of 2026, and that its long-term goal is capacity for one million robots a year. A TrendForce report dated October 8 also named the hands as a production bottleneck.
What is not known: Musk gave no new production numbers, no price and no sale date in this interview. Reports of several hundred robots a week being built at Fremont in August come from The Information and were not confirmed by Musk.
On our tracker, Optimus is listed as announced, with Musk's January 2026 statement that public sales could start by the end of 2027.