Elon Musk Unveils His Funniest Vaporware Yet

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and second richest individual on the earth, unveiled his thought for a robotic on Thursday that he says may turn out to be a prototype by 2022. And whereas Musk has delivered loads of hilarious vaporware displays previously, from the Loop to the Cybertruck, this one may take the cake.

Musk’s “robot” was only a individual dancing round in a skintight full-body go well with, however he guarantees that his electrical automobile firm actually is engaged on one thing. And he actually desires you to imagine him this time.

“The Tesla bot will be real,” Musk stated emphatically, attempting to usher his pretend robotic off-stage on Thursday.

“Tesla is arguably the world’s biggest robotics company because our cars are like semi-sentient robots on wheels,” Musk stated with a straight face.

Musk rattled off the specs of his fully imaginary creation and is positioning his robotic dream as the way forward for labor, one thing that is smart when your work setting is infamous for verbal abuse and poor conditions. After all, robot employees don’t complain whenever you make them work in harmful indoor areas throughout a pandemic.

“So what happens when there is no shortage of labor? This is why I think long term that there will need to be universal basic income,” Musk stated to applause from the group at Tesla’s AI Day.

“But not right now because this robot doesn’t work, so we just need a minute. I think especially in the future, physical work will be a choice. If you want to do it, you can, but you won’t need to do it,” Musk rambled on. 

Gizmodo might let you know that Musk’s robotic will stand 5 toes, 8 inches tall and weigh about 125 kilos. We might additionally let you know that it’s designed to get rid of harmful, boring, and repetitive duties, based on Musk. We might even let you know that it’s outfitted with Tesla “Autopilot” cameras within the head and 40 actuators within the physique. But that may be a waste of nearly everybody’s time.

This isn’t even a prototype of one thing that may hit retailer cabinets sooner or later. It’s the promise of a prototype sooner or later sooner or later—arguably worse than regular vaporware. And you’ll be able to watch the video for your self if you’re curious.

What’s the purpose of unveiling one thing that may most likely by no means occur? Whether it’s Musk’s robotaxis that had been presupposed to arrive by 2020, or solar roof tiles from 2016 that by no means got here into being, the purpose of vaporware is to push an organization into the headlines and promote extra of the identical shit they had been promoting earlier than. Bored TV information shops with 24 hours to fill get to clean a selected model—and on this case the model is Musk’s Tesla—in a hopeful and techno-utopian mystique. It additionally helps distract from detrimental information tales, like when your “Autopilot” product kills people.

But it could seem that Musk obtained precisely the sort of protection he wished in a single day with this unusual presentation that was livestreamed on YouTube. Just check out how Musk’s tales sounded in varied information shops.

CNN:

Musk stated the robotic would have a “profound” affect on the economic system. He stated bodily work could be a selection sooner or later, and a common primary revenue could be wanted. Musk is among the many Silicon Valley leaders who’ve cautioned that know-how might get rid of the roles of many individuals, so some people will want one other revenue supply.

TechCrunch:

Interestingly, Musk is imagining this as changing a lot of the human drudge work that at present occupies so many individuals’s lives – not simply labor however issues like grocery procuring and different on a regular basis duties. He waxed a few future wherein bodily work could be a selection, with all of the attendant implications that may imply for the economic system.

Fox Business:

The robotic would perform the work folks don’t love to do. “It’s around 5 foot 8. It has sort of a screen where the head is for useful information, but it’s otherwise basically got the autopilot system and it’s got cameras, got eight cameras,” stated Musk. “Full self-driving computer and making use of all of the same tools that were used in the car.”Musk talked about the robotic’s financial affect, utilizing the present employee scarcity for example.

Every one in every of these tales might have appeared in newspapers of the Fifties and ‘60s with only minor changes. A universal basic income guaranteed to every worker because robots are taking their jobs? Check out this excerpt from an article in the November 26, 1967 edition of the Gastonia Gazette in North Carolina, emphasis ours:

Those who hunger for time off from work may take heart from the forecast of political scientist Sebastian de Grazia that the average work week, by the year 2000, will average 31 hours, and perhaps as few as 21. Twenty years later, on-the-job hours may have dwindled to 26, or even 16.

But what will people do with all that free time? The outlook may not be cheery.

As De Grazia sees it: “There is reason to fear, as some do, that free time, forced free time, will bring on the restless tick of boredom, idleness, immorality, and increased personal violence. If the cause is identified as automation and the preference for higher intelligence, nonautomated jobs may increase, but they will carry the stigma of stupidity. Men will prefer not to work rather than to accept them. Those who do accept will increasingly come to be a politically inferior class.”

One possible solution: a separation of income from work; perhaps a guaranteed annual wage to provide “the wherewithal for a life of leisure for all those who think they have the temperament.”

And there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of examples like this from mainstream commenters at the time. Even Walter Cronkite, the most respected newsman of his generation, was promising a, “30-hour work week and month-long vacations as the rule” by the year 2000. It was all thanks to our robot friends.

Sadly, if we want any of these robots to actually create less work for people we’d must reorganize society fully. Because Musk’s old style guarantees may very well be a actuality if politicians truly wished them to be. Worker productiveness is thru the roof compared to the 1960s, however employees aren’t sharing within the wealth they create. The downside is that billionaires like Musk are preserving extra of the earnings. We didn’t get 30-hour work weeks as a result of your boss has no incentive to pay you for working much less. Your boss desires to squeeze as a lot work out of you as potential whereas paying you absolutely the minimal. That’s the entire thought behind capitalism.

Curiously, Musk’s pretend robotic bears a placing resemblance to Miss Honeywell, one other human dressed as much as seem like an automation in the 1960s.

Musk might not be at all times delivering humanity the longer term. But he’s obtained the retro-future theatrics right down to a science.