Tesla's humanoid robot program is building faster than ever, according to reporting from The Information, but the robots coming off the line are still mostly tools for Tesla's own training and testing rather than products for customers. Tesla itself has not published any Optimus unit counts.
What was reported
The Information reported on Sept. 25 that Tesla built "several hundred" Optimus robots a week in August, up from a few dozen a week during small-batch work in the second quarter. Electrek, which relayed the paywalled report, described that as roughly ten times Q2 output. Managers reportedly want an automated line producing more than 1,000 robots a week by the end of 2026, and eventually about 20,000 a week.
The robots are being built in Fremont on the line that used to make the Model S and Model X. Tesla's Q2 2026 shareholder update said those vehicle lines had been shut down and first-generation Optimus lines installed, with early units headed to what Tesla calls its "Optimus Academy" for data collection and development.
The hard parts: hands and brains
According to the reporting, the current "V3" robots are not the version Tesla plans to sell. Their hands and forearms contain more than 100 screws and small parts that workers still assemble by hand, and some assembly stations struggle to line up parts that are much smaller and more precise than car components. Some touch sensors have had reliability problems; Tesla reportedly plans a replaceable "sensing glove" next year.
Software is the bigger question. Three people told The Information that Optimus can't yet handle a wide range of tasks reliably, can behave unpredictably in situations it hasn't trained on, and still takes several days to learn basic jobs. Tesla reportedly has more than 500,000 hours of training data and wants to double that by year-end, and plans to lease robots to a short list of companies rather than sell them at first.
What Tesla has and hasn't confirmed
Tesla's filings support the broad setting: the S/X lines were converted and early units are for internal use. They do not confirm the weekly rates, the hand part count, the glove or the leasing plan. Tesla's Q3 production and deliveries release on Oct. 2 contained no Optimus figures, and we could not find a public Tesla comment on The Information's numbers. Treat the figures as single-source reporting until Tesla addresses them.
Context on promises matters here too. Electrek notes that in January 2025 Elon Musk said Tesla would build about 10,000 Optimus units that year; he later acknowledged none were doing useful work at Tesla.
What it means for investors: Optimus is central to the long-term bull case, so expect questions about real output, unit cost and external deployments when Tesla reports Q3 results after the market close on Oct. 21. For now, there is no consumer price, no order page and no confirmed delivery date.
