Elon Musk accused of stealing designs for new robots by Hollywood director

Tesla’s new Optimus robots and two new self-driving vehicles have come underfire by the director of I, Robot

Elon Musk has been accused of stealing designs for his new line of robots and self-driving vehicles by a Hollywood director.

On October 10, during Tesla’s unveiling event for its new robovan and cybercab, two fully self-driving vehicles, Musk also revealed the company’s newest edition of the Tesla Bot, called Optimus.

Initially unveiled in 2022, the bot has now been upgraded to include quicker walking speeds, improved hand mobility and tactile sensors.

However, many couldn’t help but compare Tesla’s creations to the robots seen in the 2004 Will Smith sci-fi movie I, Robot.

Directed by Alex Proyas and starring Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Alan Tudyk and Bruce Greenwood, the movie is set in 2035 amid a world filled with highly intelligent robots in public service positions designed to keep humans safe.

However, after the death of the company’s founder, it’s suspected that he was actually murdered by one of the robots. Smith plays a robo-sceptic detective investigating the murder.

It is based on a 1950 short-story by science-fiction author Isaac Asimov.

Indeed both the designs of Tesla’s robots and the two new Tesla vehicles look uncannily like the ones seen in the film by Proyas, who has also directed The Crow (1994) and Dark City (1998).

These comparisons didn’t go unnoticed by Proyas himself who shared three side-by-side images of Tesla’s products and the designs from his movie on X/Twitter, adding ‘Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please?’

Proyas’s post has since been shared more than 14,000 times on Musk’s own social media network with many supporting the 61-year-old director.

“When the director of one of the three movies you’ve been ripping off for ideas for decades has finally had enough of your s***,” one person said.

“There’s not a creative bone in his musty body,” a second added.

Defenders of Musk did attempt to claim that Proyas wasn’t the first person to have similar ideas with some pointing towards the 1927 Fritz Lang film Metropolis, as well as art deco designs for trains and cars in the 1930s.

Will Smith and Bridget Moynahan in ‘I, Robot’ (20th Century Studios)

The Optimus robots will reportedly cost $30,000 (£22,000) are designed to help with household tasks, including babysitting children and can “be your friend”, according to Musk.

Meanwhile, the Robovan and Cybercab, both ditch conventional controls like steering wheels and pedals in favour of a fully-autonomous driving experience.

“We’ll move from supervised Full Self-Driving to unsupervised Full Self-Driving. where you can fall asleep and wake up at your destination,” Mr Musk said. “It’s going to be a glorious future.”

Tesla have been contacted for comment.