I, Robot director accuses Elon Musk of copying his robot design for Tesla Optimus

The director of I, Robot has accused Elon Musk of copying his robot design for the new Tesla Optimus robot.

As well as unveiling the Tesla Cybercab robot vehicle recently, billionaire tech mogul Musk has been demonstrating more new tech with a glimpse of the Tesla robot, Optimus.

The latest iteration of the Optimus robot was unveiled during an event named “We, Robot” on Thursday (10 October) and instantly freaked people out over the creepy declaration that it “will do anything you want”.

For some, the robot’s design seemed oddly familiar, as the director of the 2004 Will Smith film I, Robot, Alex Proyas, shared his concerns about copying online.

Proyas directed his complaint towards Musk on X/Twitter, writing: “Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please?”

Along with the question, he posted image stills from the movie I, Robot alongside images from Tesla, showing the clear similarities that exist between the tech in the film and Musk’s real-life tech.

Side-by-side images showed not only the robots from the film next to the Tesla Optimus robot but also Tesla’s Robovan next to a similar-looking mode of transport from the movie and the Tesla Cybercab next to a car from the film.

One person argued: “The first thing I noticed about the Tesla event was the absolute lack of imagination to create anything that wasn't directly out of a sci-fi movie. I didn't realize how blatant the theft actually was.”

Another pointed out: “Especially funny cuz Elon named his event ‘We, Robot’.”

Proyas’ 2004 film is an action/science-fiction movie set in a futuristic Chicago in 2035, where intelligent robots make up the police force and other public service positions. It was inspired by sci-fi author Isaac Asimov’s short-story collection published in 1950.

Sign up for our free indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings