Tesla founder Elon Musk announced at its official Tesla's AI Day event that the electric and solar car company is working on a prototype humanoid robot that it hopes will one day replace human workers.
Musk, who spoke at the event designed to recruit AI engineers, said Tesla has essentially become a robotics company thanks to its work on AI and fully self-driving cars.
A report in the Interesting Engineering website says it is not known if Musk and Tesla are serious about getting into the humanoid robot game.
Human-like robots face greater challenges than self-driving cars, so it may be best to leave this field to Boston Dynamics, which specializes in this type of robots.
However - according to the report - the event was designed to lure researchers and engineers in the field of artificial intelligence to work at Tesla, so luring them with the prospect of developing a humanoid robot may attract a few Google engineers who would not have signed up for Tesla Otherwise.
Musk believes that the entry of the robots component to work will reduce dependence on employees, and will increase the productivity and efficiency of work, as he argues that robots do not complain about work and do not feel hungry or want better wages, according to the same source.
But that point might count against Tesla, which is dogged by allegations of anti-union behavior, including vague circumstances about firing hundreds of employees at one factory, with large numbers of pro-union regulators among those fired after an "annual review".
The National Labor Relations Board recently ruled that Tesla unlawfully retaliated against at least one union organizing employee, and ordered Musk to delete a tweet suggesting that Tesla would withdraw stock options if employees voted to join a union, a violation of US labor law, according to the report.
And if Musk and Tesla haven't always been the average worker's greatest allies, does Tesla Bot mean that Musk is building an army of forced-worker robots?
Well, yes, that's exactly what he's suggesting, but he says it's for the good of humanity.