#optimus · How Robots Are Reshaping Work

On its October 21 Q3 call Tesla said early production of Optimus has started on a high-volume line in Fremont. Musk put 20,000 units a week at least a year out and delivery to outside companies around the end of 2027.

Tesla has taken Optimus from a few dozen units a week in Q2 to several hundred by August, roughly a tenfold jump, The Information reports. None of those units are doing paid work yet, and the hand still needs a redesign Tesla isn't shipping until next year.

Tesla's robotics team landed in Ningbo on September 16 and opened a new production audit the next day, aimed at moving Optimus manufacturing capability from Tesla's U.S. plants to Chinese suppliers. Orders are already placed against a 50,000-unit target for 2026.

Tesla's Q2 call confirmed Optimus production is still zero, the first units go to data collection not customers, and Musk called it the hardest thing Tesla has ever built to scale.

Tesla plans to start Optimus V3 production at Fremont in late July on the former Model S/X line, with Musk warning early output will be slow and hard to forecast.

Tesla is ending Model S and Model X production at Fremont to convert the lines to Optimus humanoids, with Gen 3 mass production targeted for summer 2026.

Six months ago, Optimus dropped the water bottles on a Miami stage. Five weeks before the Fremont robot line starts up, it can hand them to a person without dropping them. The trajectory is the product.

In early May 2026, Tesla rolled the last Model S and Model X off the Fremont assembly line — ending a 14-year and 11-year run respectively. The same line is being torn down and reinstalled as the first-generation Optimus production line, targeted at one million humanoid robots a year. The retool window is four months. The Optimus V3 reveal lands in late July. The car factory that built California's electric-vehicle myth is now the robot factory.

On Tesla's Q1 2026 earnings call, Musk confirmed the last Model S and Model X roll off Fremont in early May — ending 14 and 11 years of production — so the lines can be dismantled and rebuilt to make Optimus V3 humanoids starting in late July.

Tesla just confirmed Shanghai will help mass-produce its Optimus humanoid at $20–30k a unit, targeting 1 million per year. The Model S line is being repurposed. Your next coworker may not need a parking spot.