Not long after Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the company’s “most epic demo ever,” which many hypothesized was either about the long-awaited Roadster supercar or Optimus 3, the latest evolution of Tesla’s humanoid robot, the company has unveiled the latter.
Indeed, a video of the new Optimus 3 prototype, answering questions and walking about clad in new gold color material, came out courtesy of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who offered an exclusive peek into the upcoming robot in an X post on September 3.
As it happens, Optimus 3 is clearly in its very early stages of development, but it’s also obvious that it uses Grok for some additional utility to answer questions that Benioff asked in the video. Also, its hands appear a lot more human-like than in previous versions of Optimus.
Improving Optimus’ hands
Notably, Musk had previously talked about Optimus’ hands, specifically improving them from Gen 2 to the next version, including a year ago, when he mentioned that:
“Next-generation Optimus hand, which we have in prototype form, has actuators that have moved to the forearm, just like humans, and they operate the fingers through cables, just like human hands.”
As a reminder, earlier in July 2025, Musk posted a cryptic update about the “most epic demo ever” set to come out by the end of this year, as he informed the wider public that he had “just left the Tesla design studio,” leaving many to speculate what the announcement could be referring to.
One thing that fuelled the idea that it was Optimus 3 that Musk was referring to was the Tesla CEO’s previous comments under an X post with videos showing the company’s progress in the field of robotics, where he proclaimed that “Optimus V3 is amazing.”
More recently, Musk teased on X that Optimus could soon get a job at a Tesla Supercharger Diner, the first of which officially opened its door to the public in Los Angeles – and this job would involve bringing you your food, although he later deleted the said post.
What do you think?
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