Tesla AI Day 2022: How to watch, and our top 5 predictions
Tesla AI Day is an annual event in which Tesla reveals all of its upcoming projects and showcases its latest technology. If you are debating whether or not to tune in, here is what you can expect.
This event is similar to other major tech companies' annual events, such as Apple's Far Out event that took place earlier this month, Samsung's Unpacked event, and Google's annual I/O keynote. It's an opportunity for the public to learn about what is to come. Musk teased on Twitter that the event would have "lots of technical detail & cool hardware demos."
Although news about Tesla electric vehicles makes up a good portion of these events, with Tesla, there are always surprises. Last year, the biggest surprise was the dancing robot that walked onto the stage to accompany Tesla CEO Elon Musk. A man dressed in a robot suit was Tesla's creative way of announcing its first humanoid robot, Optimus.
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This Tesla AI Day we predict Tesla likely discuss Optimus, self-driving cars, the Tesla Cybertruck, the Dojo chip, and robotaxis.
How to watch Tesla's AI Day
The event will take place today and be livestreamed on the Tesla website beginning at 6:15 pm PT. A leaked ticket to the event shows that Tesla is hosting the event at one of its locations in Palo Alto, Calif. from 5 to 11 pm PT.
Keep reading to learn about the technologies we expect to see featured tonight.
1. Optimus
After all the buzz that Optimus created last year, it can be expected that the humanoid robot will be at the forefront of this year's event. Musk unofficially confirmed that Optimus would be a topic of discussion at this year's event by switching the event date from Aug. 19 to Sept. 30, due to the possible availability of an Optimus prototype on the later date.
Tesla AI Day pushed to Sept 30, as we may have an Optimus prototype working by then
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2022
So what is the hype about Optimus? Besides its futuristic design that makes it look like it came right out of a sci-fi movie, Optimus is garnering attention because it is a humanoid robot powered by Tesla's AI that could revolutionize the way people do things.
Also known as the Tesla bot, Optimus would be a 5-foot, 8-inch robot that can perform human tasks such as carrying 45 pounds and deadlifting 145 pounds.
"It's intended to be friendly, of course, and navigate through a world built for humans and eliminate dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks," said Musk at last year's Tesla AI Day.
Also: Tesla's first Optimus robot comes alive, Musk says it will cost less than $20,000
People remain skeptical at who the intended consumer for this product is, as it will likely be a hefty investment for an average household. Also, robots have never really been implemented in households, with the exception of robots of the Roomba sort, so the release of this product would be a drastic departure from current technology.
Other applications for the robot would be factories and the service industry, which could benefit from the assistance the AI-driven robot could provide.
It is no secret that Tesla utilizes Tesla AI day to recruit talent. Musk has admitted himself that a major purpose of Tesla AI Day is recruiting.
Looking at holding Tesla AI Day in about a month or so. Will go over progress with Tesla AI software & hardware, both training & inference. Purpose is recruiting.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2021
On the Tesla website, under the Tesla Bot portion, Tesla says it is looking for talent to further develop Optimus. Therefore, this is further confirmation that Tesla will talk about Optimus at the event to fill the talent void.
"We're seeking mechanical, electrical, controls and software engineers to help us leverage our AI expertise beyond our vehicle fleet," according to Tesla's website.
2. Self-driving cars
Although the promise of a Tesla self-driving car is nothing new, Tesla has yet to release a self-driving car to the public. At an energy conference in Norway last month, Musk announced his plans to get Tesla's self-driving technology ready for release by year-end, according to a Reuters report.
Also: Elon Musk says that the self-driving Tesla could be ready by the end of the year
Musk has shown he is very passionate about self-driving vehicle technology, proclaiming via Twitter, "Self-driving electric cars will be all that matters. Gas car without autonomy will be like riding a horse & using a flip phone. That still happens, but it's niche."
Since Musk first announced the idea in 2016, there have been several new release dates each year, which all came up short. He even promised a Tesla self-autonomous trip from NYC to LA, which got delayed to 2017, then 2018, and is yet to happen. So we can expect another update at this event, hopefully with a firm date that comes before the end of the year.
Tesla's promised self-driving technology would significantly diverge from existing features -- there will be no driver needed at all.
Tesla's current capabilities allow its vehicles to take several autonomous actions, such as autosteer, autopark, auto lane change, identifying stop signs and traffic lights, and slowing your car down when approaching traffic signs. However, human direction is still required.
3. Tesla Cybertruck
The Tesla Cybertruck is also not a brand-new concept -- it was originally introduced in 2019. Since its original announcement, the Cybertruck production date keeps getting pushed back further and further. For this reason alone, we could expect the much-anticipated Cybertruck to be a star of the Tesla AI Day. However, yesterday Elon Musk tweeted that the vehicle could also "briefly" function as a boat.
With such a sensational claim being announced one day before Tesla AI Day, we are almost certain the Cybertruck will be talked about at the event.
Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes & even seas that aren’t too choppy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 29, 2022
The electric pickup truck has a unique, geometric design that is unlike any trucks you currently see on the road. The Tesla website claims that the truck offers "better utility than a truck with more performance than a sports car."
After test-driving the truck in January, Musk teased that the Cybertruck is "awesome."
Been driving latest Cybertruck prototype around Giga Texas. It’s awesome!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2022
Today, we can expect Musk to give us an update on the details of this pickup-boat-truck tomorrow, as well as details as to when we can expect the Cybertruck to be produced and shipped to the public.
4. Dojo chip
Dojo refers to Tesla's in-house supercomputer for machine learning -- an AI-training machine. "Dojo is a neural network training computer optimized for video (for self-driving)," said Musk via Twitter.
Dojo, our training supercomputer, will be able to process vast amounts of video training data & efficiently run hypersparce arrays with a vast number of parameters, plenty of memory & ultra-high bandwidth between cores. More on this later.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2020
At Tesla AI Day last year, Tesla announced the Dojo supercomputer. However, at the time the supercomputer was still being developed. This AI Day, we can expect updates on the development of the Dojo program.
5. Robotaxi
Musk first said that the robotaxi would be on the road by the end of 2020. Over two years later, we are still waiting for self-driving Teslas to be released to the public, much less a self-driving taxi.
However, a couple of months ago, during Tesla's Q1 2022 earnings call, Musk said: "We aspire to reach volume production of [the robotaxi] in 2024."
Also: Elon Musk predicts a Tesla robotaxi ride will cost less than a subsidized bus ticket
During this call, Musk also said that the robotaxi would provide the cheapest type of transportation, with a robotaxi ride costing less than a subsidized bus ticket.
Because of the recent talks of the taxi, it wouldn't be surprising if on Tesla AI Day we get another update.
Honorable mentions
Tesla Supercharger V4
Tesla has yet to officially announce the release of its most advanced supercharger, the Supercharger V4. This charger is supposed to exceed its predecessor, the Supercharger V3, in charging power, with at least 300 kW.
Also: First Tesla Supercharger V4 will be coming to Arizona
Despite Tesla not announcing the Supercharger, we know what the Supercharger V4 will look like, due to design plans and construction plans that Tesla aficionados dug up and posted on Twitter, and construction plans reveal where the first site will be located.
Despite the increased power output, the design of the Supercharger V4 will remain basically the same. The design plans reveal that it will have the same shape, with the only difference being that the nozzle will be on the outside as opposed to in the hollow inside where it is situated now.
Tesla supercharger site plans for Danvers, MA appear to now include references to "Alternative Supercharger Posts" in addition to v3 posts. This is probably still a v3 build, but this suggests v4 sites are on the way 😍
— John Harris (@JH_bedford) July 19, 2022
Thank you @TeslaCharging pic.twitter.com/FoSB7ZnGpO
We can expect Musk to announce the release and production of the Supercharger V4 as well as details on appearance, location, and performance.
New Tesla Factory locations
For months, there have been rumors about where the next Tesla factory will be opened. In June, Tesla held a company-wide meeting with employees in which Musk said he was looking at sites for the construction of the new factory, according to Electrek.
Musk also said that the new location could possibly not be the US, with sites in Canada and Mexico under consideration as well. This Tesla AI Day would be a great opportunity for Tesla to announce where its next factory will be and what the factory's focus will be.
Surprise announcements
As mentioned earlier, Tesla has used Tesla AI day to drop surprises, for example, a 5-foot, 8-inch human "robot" last year. Therefore, it wouldn't be surprising if Tesla went rogue from the things on this list and dropped something completely unexpected this year. If you don't want to sit through a 6-hour livestream to find out, don't worry, we will do a roundup with every Tesla update.