Paul Stenhouse: Elon Musk unveils taxis, vans, and humanoids at "We, Robot" event

Elon Musk's “We, Robot” event saw taxis, vans, and humanoids 

Elon says it will be "the biggest product ever" calling them an “autonomous assistant, humanoid friend".   

He gave us a glimpse into a future. At the party robots danced, served cocktails, and chatted with guests with a voice that sounded like a human. It's cadence and tone were offputtingly normal. When an event attendee told Optimus he was doing a good job, the robot looked up in acknowledgement, then said “You wanna get a photo?” and made a peace sign with its hand. 

In a video they were watering plants, collecting packages, cleaning the kitchen after dinner, unloading groceries and unwinding with a board game with the family’s kids. 

The marketing materials said they're designed to take on the dangerous and boring tasks in your life. The lofty goal is to have them ready to sell by the end of 2025, with a price-tag of somewhere around USD$30,000.   
 
They unveiled a robocab with two seats, no steering wheel, and is controlled through a large touchscreen mounted on the dashboard. And then there's the robovan, which looks like a futuristic Airstream caravan who's worst enemy may be a speedbump.        

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from Newstalks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
A'd be twenty three to eleven.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
On News Talks, it'd be over and I Elon Musk
has held a robo event with all sorts of new
products and designs, including robotaxis, robo vans, and something called
a humanoid. Our texpert Paul Stenhouse is here with the details.
What on earth is a humanoid?

Speaker 4 (00:31):
Paul? Yeah, So, if you've ever seen Will Smith's movie
I Robot came out in two thousand and four, it's usually,
you know, a good classic to watch when you've got
whole lot else on in the queue. That is basically
what Elon Musk says you're going to be able to
buy by the end of twenty twenty five. Now hopefully
it's the good one and not the bad one I Robot,

(00:55):
but he is calling it the biggest product ever, right.
He's saying it as an autonomous assistant and a humanoid friend.
And let me say, I saw the headline, saw the
video and thought I was kind of skeptical, I'll be honest,
pushed play on the video and was maybe terrified, but

(01:19):
you may be amazed.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Right. So these this robot started to have it lookcause
it looks like a robot, looks like a human. It
looks it's got arms and legs, and it's got like
a rotator thing where it's hipstar so its body can
swivel around, and it it was having a conversation with
someone and it looked at them, It engaged with them.
It spoke to them in like a cadence and tone

(01:43):
that was just off puttingly normal. I don't know how
to put it. And then I was reading an article
on it said that one event attend told this robot
thing that it was doing a good job as it
was pouring it a cocktail from a keig Right. True story.
The robot looked up and said, you want to get
a photo, and then made a peace sign with its hands,

(02:05):
like ready for the photo.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:07):
Crazy. So Elon Musk had them at this event. They
were dancing, they were serving cocktails, they were chatting with people.
They showed a video where he's trying to position them.
I guess is almost like Rosy from the Jetsons. I guess, yeah,
you know, being able to what are your plants, collect
your packages, clean up the kitchen after dinner, unpack your groceries,

(02:30):
or play a board game with the kids.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
So he said on x quote, it will be able
to do anything you want. It can be a teacher,
babysit your kids, walk your dog, mow your lawn, get
the groceries, just be your friend. Whatever you can think of,
it will do.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
Be your friend.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
So these are going to cost at the moment, what
like forty or fifty grand or something like that.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
So New Zealand dollars. Yeah, they're saying somewhere between like
and there's a lofty goal, right, they think they're going
to have them ready by the end of twenty twenty five. Yeah,
he's saying it's going to be less than the price
of a car. No, don't get me wrong, that's a
lot large price tag. Yes, if it can do all
of those things, I guess it'll pay for itself pretty quickly.

(03:15):
I yes, yeah, I mean imagine the because here's so,
here's here's the cell. Right. The marketing materials are saying
they should be taking on the dangerous and the boring
tasks in your life, right if you were a business owner, right,
what are those like really boring, really repetitive tasks? That
you could. I mean, that's a pretty fifty grand are

(03:36):
these robots? Yes, that's a salary.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
It is, Yeah, I mean it's always that's where we're going.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
And I don't want I don't want to be the
guy who says this isn't going to happen. But I
am acutely aware that Elon Musk was the one who
said that we would all have like fully autonomous vehicles
about seven or eight years ago, right, and we aren't
quite there.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
The robocab looked kind of cool.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Though it did look kind of cool. Just explain the robocab.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
So the robocab, imagine a car, no steering wheel, no pedals,
just two c and age enormous screen sitting in front
of you, and you tell it where you want to
go in a way it goes. But then there's the
robo van Jack with right looks like a futuristic airstream
whose worst enemy is probably a speed bump.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, this thing is so.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
Low to the ground. Looks cool, but it looks like
it's going to get destroyed by a bad road.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yes, or a slight slow yeah yeah yeah, can't make
it up a driveway, but it looks very cool. Oh yeah, yeah, look, hey,
thanks Paul.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, it's going to be fascinating to see if these.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
If these humanoids actually do make it to market, especially
by the end of next year. Before eleven o'clock, we
are in the garden with the fertilizers that you need
to get your spring plants absolutely humming at this time
of year.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
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