Tesla VP shares key insights on latest Optimus dance demos

Max Headroom 2025.05.14 3 min read

A Tesla VP recently shared some key insights about Optimus’ latest dance demonstrations. Tesla showcased Optimus’ dance moves in two demonstrations this week, with its second demo becoming a shock to many.

Optimus Demonstrations

Optimus’ initial demonstration this week featured the humanoid robot performing a number of rhythmic actions. As per Tesla Vice President of Optimus (Tesla Bot) Milan Kovac, the humanoid robot’s movements were trained in simulation. He also explained that the cable, which could be seen attached at the back of Optimus, was simply there in case of a fall.

More coming shortly! The team has been working very hard in the background.

Entirely trained in simulation with RL. Many optimizations and fixes have been put in place in our sim-to-real training code.

The cable is there in case of a fall (not actually holding the bot) since… https://t.co/aMEUhDbX4a

— Milan Kovac (@_milankovac_) May 13, 2025

Interestingly enough, a follow-up video demonstration featuring Optimus performing even more advanced rhythmic movements was posted by CEO Elon Musk on social media platform X on Tuesday. In this demo, Optimus could be seen performing ballet and modern dance moves. Unlike the previous demonstration, Optimus was completely untethered this time around. Elon Musk stated in a follow-up post on X that Optimus should eventually be able to do ballet movements perfectly.

What the Optimus VP Says

Kovac has provided some key insights on Optimus’ second demonstration for the week. As per the Tesla executive, the movements of the humanoid robot in the video were in real-time. The demonstration was also fully learned in simulation and zero-shot transferred to real without extra training.

“Here’s a little more, and no cables this time. It’s all real-time speed, zero CGI, fully learned in simulation & zero-shot transferred to real. Besides the fact that it’s fun, we had to make significant improvements to our robot model in Sim, domain randomization and other techniques which will directly transfer to more practical situations as well (robust walking, and agile full-body control in general).

“We also learned quite a few things on our hardware and tuned our power profile. I hope it is getting pretty clear that Tesla is much more than an amazing car (!) company: it’s the place to be for transformational real-world AI,” Kovac wrote in his post on X.

The post Tesla VP shares key insights on latest Optimus dance demos appeared first on TESLARATI.

News, Tesla, Featured, Tesla Optimus

TESLARATI