Elon Musk, Tesla's humanoid Optimus robot "will be worth more than the car business

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, predicted that its humanoid robot would one day be the most valuable part of its business.

"I was surprised that people are unaware of the magnitude of the Optimus robot program," Musk said Wednesday evening. "Those astute or pay close attention will recognize that Optimus will eventually be worth more than the automobile industry and more than full self-driving." That is my unequivocal belief."

Although Musk stated that the first models of the bipedal robot would be available next year, experts are skeptical of that timeline. Musk is well-known for making overly optimistic forecasts. He is years behind schedule on a 2016 promise that Tesla would deliver self-driving cars by 2017. He recently stated that Tesla is "not currently working" on a $25,000 self-driving vehicle that he promised in 2020 would be available by 2023.

Musk first revealed the robot at Tesla's AI Day last summer, a series of tech talks hosted by the company to recruit machine learning talent. Musk announced with an actor dressed in a bodysuit designed to look like him.

"It's intended to be friendly, of course, also navigate through a world of humans and eliminate dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks," Musk said at the time, according to news.

Musk stated that he envisions a future where the robot can also run errands for its human owners. "It should be able to, you think, please go to the store also get me the following groceries," he said.

Musk, who has previously warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence, also stated that the robot is being built so that humans will be able to outrun or overpower it if something goes wrong.