During Tesla's (TSLA) -) second quarter earnings call July 19, most of the focus was on better-than-expected earnings, high profit margins and how price cuts for electric vehicles were affecting the company's revenues.
There was also some discussion in the media about why Tesla stock price fell in after hours trading.
DON'T MISS: Tesla Earnings, Profit Margins Beat Wall Street Forecasts Amid Global EV Price War
One culprit may have been the fact that during the earnings call, CEO Elon Musk and others were noncommittal on delivery dates for some key products, including the much anticipated Cybertruck.
"Q2-2023 was a record quarter on many levels with our best-ever production and deliveries and revenue approaching $25 billion in a single quarter," Tesla had said. "We are excited that we were able to achieve such results given the macroeconomic environment we are currently in."
During the call, the discussion turned to other projects taking place at the electric vehicle company -- some that aren't always dominating the headlines.
Big plans for Optimus, the Humanoid Robot
In particular, a question was eventually asked about how many Optimus bots had been made. Optimus is Tesla's humanoid robot that was announced on Aug. 19, 2021.
"Ten million. Yes, I think we’re around five or six bots. Ten, I guess. Depends on what, how many are working and what phase. There’s more every month," Musk answered. "There’s a lot of interesting things about the Optimus bot. We found that there are actually no suppliers that can produce the actuators. There are no off-the-shelf actuators that work well for humanoid robot at any price."
Then Musk made a statement about the robotics and artificial intelligence projects Tesla is undertaking that were quite compelling.
"I should say another cool thing about Optimus is that there's, just in the U.S. alone, there are 2 million amputees. And I was just talking to the Neuralink team," Musk said, setting up his train of thought.
"And by combining a Neuralink implant and a robotic arm or leg for someone that has had their arm or leg or arms and legs amputated, we believe we can give basically a cyber body that is incredibly capable," he explained.
"A Six Million Dollar Man in real life. Don’t want to cost $6 million. $60,000 man," he said. "This sounds impressive, but it will actually, I think, would be incredible to potentially help people around the world and give them a robot arm, or like, that is as good, maybe long term better than a biological one."
The Six Million Dollar Man
For television and science fiction enthusiasts of a certain age, The Six Million Dollar Man was a 1970s television show about astronaut Steve Austin, played by actor Lee Majors, who suffered an accident while working for NASA.
He was given "bionic" implants that gave him superhuman capabilities with regard to his vision, speed and strength.
The introduction to the show recounted the accident and the operation that gave Austin the bionic capabilities.
"We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was," a voice was heard saying. "Better. Stronger. Faster."
Austin was also known in the series and to fans as "The Bionic Man."
Get exclusive access to portfolio managers and their proven investing strategies with Real Money Pro. Get started now.
