Automotive and logistics pilots tested biped/humanoid robots for repetitive tasks, with ROI still under evaluation.
Figure, Agility, Tesla, and Chinese vendors installed plant pilots. Tasks: picking, inspection, internal transport.
Falls, maintenance, and workplace safety limited scale. Still, multi-million contracts signaled long-term bets.
Humanoid robotics coupled vision-language-action models to hardware finally leaving the demo video.
In 2026 Figure AI reported sustained Figure 03 production at its BotQ factory—on the order of one unit per hour and milestones toward/past 1,000 robots—and logistics-sequencing trials with BMW in Spartanburg; Tesla audits China while Figure already shows a visible ramp.
Reports on 21 September 2026 say Tesla teams audited Yangtze Delta suppliers—including Tuopu, Sanhua and Joyson—to accelerate Optimus Gen 3; commercial sales remain aimed at 2027, with Fremont for early scaling and Texas as long-term aspirational capacity.
Vision-language-action policies and teleop data advanced generalist manipulation—still far from perfect home robots.