Tesla to Have Humanoid Robots for Internal Use Next Year, Musk Says

A Tesla sign is seen on the Shanghai Gigafactory of the US electric car maker before a delivery ceremony in Shanghai, China January 7, 2020. Reuters
A Tesla sign is seen on the Shanghai Gigafactory of the US electric car maker before a delivery ceremony in Shanghai, China January 7, 2020. Reuters
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Tesla to Have Humanoid Robots for Internal Use Next Year, Musk Says

A Tesla sign is seen on the Shanghai Gigafactory of the US electric car maker before a delivery ceremony in Shanghai, China January 7, 2020. Reuters
A Tesla sign is seen on the Shanghai Gigafactory of the US electric car maker before a delivery ceremony in Shanghai, China January 7, 2020. Reuters

Tesla will have humanoid robots in low production for the company's internal use next year, CEO Elon Musk said on Monday, months after he announced that the rollout would be by the end of 2024.
The company will have the robots in high production for other companies' use "hopefully" in 2026, Musk said in a post on social media platform X.
Musk had said in April that the Tesla robot, called Optimus, would be able to perform tasks in the factory by the end of this year and could be ready for sale as soon as the end of 2025, Reuters reported.
Humanoid robots have been in development for several years by Japan's Honda and Hyundai Motor's Boston Dynamics. Several companies are betting on them to meet potential labor shortages and perform repetitive tasks that could be dangerous or tedious in industries such as logistics, warehousing and manufacturing.
Musk has a history of failing to fulfill bold promises to Wall Street. In 2019, he told investors that Tesla would be operating a network of "robotaxi" autonomous cars by 2020.
Tesla put out the first generation of its Optimus robot, dubbed Bumblebee, in September 2022. This year, the company posted a video of a second generation of the bipedal robot folding a T-shirt at the firm's facility.



Iranian Hackers Targeted WhatsApp Accounts of Staffers in Biden, Trump Administrations, Meta Says

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump talks with reporters at a campaign event at ll Toro E La Capra, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump talks with reporters at a campaign event at ll Toro E La Capra, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
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Iranian Hackers Targeted WhatsApp Accounts of Staffers in Biden, Trump Administrations, Meta Says

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump talks with reporters at a campaign event at ll Toro E La Capra, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump talks with reporters at a campaign event at ll Toro E La Capra, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

The same Iranian hacking group believed to have targeted both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns tried to go after the WhatsApp accounts of staffers in the administrations of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, Meta Platforms said Friday.

Meta said it discovered the network of hackers, who posed as tech support agents for companies including Microsoft and Google, after individuals who received the suspicious WhatsApp messages reported them. Meta’s investigators linked the activity to the same network blamed for the hacking incident reported by Trump’s campaign, The AP reported.

The FBI this week said a hack by Iran of the Trump campaign and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign was part of a broader Iranian effort to interfere with the US presidential election.

A statement Friday from Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, said that the hackers had tried to target the WhatsApp account of individuals in the Middle East, the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as political and diplomatic officials — including unidentified officials associated with the Trump and Biden administrations. A “small cluster” of accounts was blocked by Meta, the company said.

“We have not seen evidence of the targeted WhatsApp accounts being compromised, but out of an abundance of caution, we’re sharing our findings publicly, in addition to sharing information with law enforcement and our industry peers,” Meta said in a statement.

US intelligence officials say Iran’s increasingly aggressive use of cyberattacks and disinformation has several motives: to confuse and polarize voters in an effort to undermine confidence in US democracy, to erode support for Israel, and to oppose candidates that it believes will increase tension between Washington and Iran.