Tesla’s Optimus robot is going through growing pains

Tesla’s Optimus robot is going through growing pains

Tesla’s humanoid robot reportedly still needs humans to manually assemble its hands.

Tesla’s humanoid robot reportedly still needs humans to manually assemble its hands.

by

Stevie Bonifield

Sep 25, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Stevie Bonifield

is a news writer covering all things consumer tech. Stevie started out at Laptop Mag writing news and reviews on hardware, gaming, and AI.

Hitting its goal of making 20,000 Optimus robots per week is reportedly proving tricky for Tesla.The Informationreports that Tesla produced “several hundred robots a week” last month, after itrepurposed its Model S and Model X production linesfor Optimus earlier this year. However, this strategy is reportedly creating manufacturing snags, like issues lining up parts precisely, asThe Informationnotes: “Not only are the Optimus production lines new, but the Optimus parts are much smaller and have to fit together far more precisely than car parts.”

It reports that even in the “V3” Optimus robots it’s currently producing, the hands and forearms “have more than 100 screws and other small components that currently require a worker to assemble manually.” These robots are lighter and have more cameras than previous versions, but lack a “sensing glove” currently in development that will improve durability by making it easier to replace touch sensors without swapping out the entire hand.

Optimus has faced delays for years now, even asTesla CEO Elon Muskhas made bold promises about it, saying Optimus will be Tesla’s “biggest product of all time.” However, at the moment they’re still being used internally for specific tasks in limited areas, and not generally or with remote teleoperation. Tesla also reportedly plans to lease the robots initially rather than selling them, and use the training data collected to improve the robots, but it will have to get them out in the world first.

Meanwhile, other developers have begun shifting toless lifelike designsfor their robots, and earlier this month, Chinese regulators reportedly startedholding back IPO listingsfor humanoid robotics companies.

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• Stevie Bonifield

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