Tesla has officially announced that the pilot production line for its humanoid robot, Optimus, is now operational at the Fremont factory. A larger-scale production line for the third-generation humanoid robot is slated to come online in 2026.

The company stated it is currently testing various use cases for the robot within its factories and office facilities. Once mass production begins, Tesla expects to bring the per-unit cost below $20,000.

During the company’s Q3 earnings call in October, Elon Musk confirmed that the final design of the third-generation Optimus robot has been delayed until Q1 of next year. According to a source within Tesla’s supply chain, the automaker had initially aimed to lock in the technical specifications for the Gen 3 robot earlier this year and begin mass production shortly thereafter. The supplier, anticipating a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars, had already invested hundreds of millions of yuan and deployed several hundred engineers over nearly three years of development.

The humanoid robot has previously demonstrated capabilities such as performing martial arts moves, picking up eggs, and slowly handing out popcorn. Musk has expressed ambitions to scale annual production to one million units, calling Optimus “potentially the most important product in history” and emphasizing its significant potential.