Where Tesla and Apple first seemed to be fighting it out in the car market, that fight is now parked for good. Now a new battle seems to be brewing, as to who will build the perfect robot.
Last month it became clear that the Apple Car was never going to happen. So Tesla did not gain a new competitor. Now Apple seems to be trading one wheeled invention for another.
The company on a special robot for the home. Here it runs into Tesla again, as that company is also working on its own robot. Yet they both seem slightly different.
Apple’s future robot
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is working on a personal robot. This will use AI to follow you around the house. This one will soon be able to perform tasks to give you extra help. The company is also working on another robot that can move around on your table and desk and has a screen.
According to the journalist, the Tesla competitor involves “a device that can independently navigate around the house and also serve as a gadget for video meetings.”
The Amazon Astro. (Image: Amazon)
Such a robot might remind you of the Amazon Astro. This robot looks a bit like an iPad with wheels. The gadget drives around and can display information on the screen. Moreover, it is also a kind of security robot, as it tells you when a strange person is in your house.
These are two pretty rough descriptions, but other than that we don’t know much about Apple’s possible robot and what stage the project is in. It may never even come to fruition like the Apple Car that was supposed to compete with Tesla.
Will it be a Tesla competitor?
Precisely because we don’t know much about Apple’s robot yet, it remains mostly speculation. In any case, it is not a robot that can help you with chores around the house. At least this idea has been pushed back to 2030 because of technical challenges.
With such a robot, on the other hand, we should immediately think again of Tesla. Elon Musk’s company is working on the Tesla Optimus, an autonomous humanoid robot that has two legs and can perform unsafe, repetitive and boring tasks. In short, all things you’d rather not do yourself.
Yet there is a similarity. Like the Apple robot, the Tesla Optimus works largely with AI. It should hit the market sometime between 2025 and 2027, according to Elon Musk.
By the way, this one does have a hefty price tag, but perhaps less than you might expect. It should cost under $20,000.
