Elon Musk says Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot could upend the prison industrial complex.
During the EV maker’s 2025 annual shareholder meeting, Musk floated the idea of using the Tesla Bot as a “more humane form of containment” for people convicted of crimes. Instead of going to jail, he said, offenders could get an Optimus to stay on their case.
“You now get a free Optimus and it’s just going to follow you around and stop you from doing crime,” he said with a laugh. “But other than that, you get to anything. Just it’s going to stop you from committing crime. That’s really it. You don’t have to put people in prisons and stuff.”
Musk was clearly in a celebratory mood as shareholders had just approved his 2025 CEO performance compensation plan, with more than 75 percent voting in favor. The package ties Musk’s earnings entirely to Tesla’s market performance and growth milestones. Instead of an annual salary or cash bonus, he’ll receive stock options worth tens of billions of dollars if the company meets its ambitious valuation and operational targets. If the stars align, it could make Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
Heading into 2026, Musk is framing Optimus as the central pillar of Tesla’s next phase. He described an extremely broad range of roles the Tesla Bot could fill, from replacing human labor in manufacturing and logistics to personal companionship to medical care. He suggested Optimus could one day perform surgery “better than the best human surgeon with a level of precision that is beyond human.”
He reiterated his belief that humanoid robots like Optimus could unlock an age of abundance. He called the humanoid “kind of like an infinite money glitch,” describing it as a civilization-scale economic multiplier that delivers near-limitless productivity. During a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast, Musk widespread automation is the only way to produce what he called “universal high income.” He also cautioned things could turn dystopian.
“There are multiple scenarios,” he said. “There are a lot of ways this movie can end. One of the possibilities is The Terminator scenario. It’s not zero percent.”
In the long-term, Musk said Optimus could integrate with Neuralink to host digital versions of human consciousness. Within 20 years, he said, it could be possible to essentially upload a person’s mind into a robot to unlock digital immortality. Neuralink has already begun testing an integration with a robotic arm for patients to control its movements directly with their thoughts.
Tesla initially intended to manufacture up to 10,000 humanoids in 2025 but those plans have been pushed into 2026. Engineered paused production due to persistent hand/forearm design issue. Tesla’s humanoid ambitious were also impacted by supply chain challenges and geopolitical tension.
During the shareholder event, Tesla showcased the latest iteration of its flagship humanoid, which Musk calls Optimus 2.5. He said the highly anticipated Gen 3 Tesla Bot will be unveiled in Q1 of 2026. He predicted that the general public would be blown away by its realism. Tesla is targeting pricing around $20K once production is scaled.
“It will seem as though there’s a person in a robot outfit, which is how we started with Optimus,” Musk said, referencing a 2021 presentation that featured a dancing Optimus cosplayer in lieu of a physical prototype. “And then Optimus 4, that hopefully starts production in ’27 and then Optimus 5 in ’28, so it’s kind of like an annual release cycle with significant improvements with each one and gigantic increases in the scale of production.”
He said a pilot production line has been established in Fremont, which serves as a model for scaling Optimus manufacturing across Tesla’s global footprint. Follow-up facilities are being identified to reach 10 million units annually and eventually even higher. Musk described it as the foundation for the “biggest product of all time,” saying production speed and cost efficiency will determine how early Optimus can hit the mass market. Tesla is targeting pricing around $20K once production is scaled.
Tesla is facing stiffening competition from Western robotics firms like Figure AI and 1X Technologies, which has opened preorders for its Neo humanoid for home. There’s also an onslaught of Chinese startups coming directly for Optimus including Unitree Robotics, AgiBot, and Xpeng, which stunned audiences earlier this week with its next-gen Iron humanoid’s lifelike movements.