--- title: "Tesla Reportedly Can’t Get the Hands to Work on Its Optimus Robot" description: "Tesla is targeting building 20,000 Optimus robots a week. According to The Information's latest reporting, it has a lot of catching up to do." date: "2026-09-28" modified: "2026-09-28" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor.md" url: "https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/tesla-cant-get-hands-work-optimus-robot" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" - "Tesla" --- # Tesla Reportedly Can’t Get the Hands to Work on Its Optimus Robot ![Tesla's humanoid robot "Optimus" distributes popcorn at a Christmas market stall.]() *Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty Images* Earlier this year, news emerged that Tesla's factory in Fremont, California [was being converted]() from a facility manufacturing its Model S and X EVs to focus on building its Optimus humanoid robot instead. It was the latest sign yet that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was making good on his threat of abandoning car sales in favor of both AI and the company's bipedal, black-masked assistant. But progress has been slower than he'd like. While the company managed to ramp up production of its Optimus robot from a few dozen in Q2 to several hundred a week last month, as [*The Information* reports](), it's running into some serious roadblocks that could endanger its ambitious plans of manufacturing more than 1,000 of them a week before the end of this year. For one, most units aren't actually being shipped to customers and instead are being used for internal testing and data collection. They're also not being treated as general purpose machines, still being confined to complete simple, repetitive tasks. That's in part because the company is seriously struggling with durability and reliable assembly of the robot's hands, according to *The Information*, a major engineering challenge Tesla has [reportedly been struggling with for over a year now](). Instead of relying on touch sensors built directly into the hands, the carmaker is developing a "sensing glove" that can be hot-swapped. Beyond the robot's hands, and despite hundreds of thousands of hours of training data, Tesla's robots are still struggling to learn basic tasks, a process that can take them days. The latest reality check flies in the face of Tesla CEO Elon Musk's characteristically boisterous predictions. He [promised in 2024]() to have a "thousand to a couple thousand robots working in its factories" by 2025. Then, in January 2025, he [said]() that Tesla would build roughly 10,000 Optimus robots by the end of last year, many of which would be "doing useful things." Now, Tesla is targeting 20,000 units a week. But considering *The Information*'s latest reporting, Musk's EV maker has a massive amount of catching up to do — let alone convincing customers to spend huge amounts of money on humanoid robots. **More on Optimus:** *[Elon Musk Says His Optimus Robot Is So Dope That People Will Forget Tesla Ever Made Cars]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()