Tesla Workers Resist Training Optimus Robots to Replace Them

Some Tesla employees at the company's Fremont, California, factory are pushing back against instructions to train the Optimus humanoid robots being built to eventually do their jobs, according to reporting by The Information relayed by Ars Technica. The friction comes as Tesla converts assembly-line space once used for the Model S and Model X into space for robot production.

What is happening at Tesla's Fremont plant?

Tesla stopped building the Model S sedan and Model X SUV at Fremont as of May 2026 and shifted both line workers and engineers onto Optimus, Ars Technica reported, citing The Information. The move signals how far CEO Elon Musk is willing to reorganize the company's oldest U.S. plant around a product that has yet to reach mass production. Tesla has not published its own account of the Fremont conversion timeline in a public filing cited by the source material, so the May 2026 date comes solely from The Information's reporting as relayed by Ars Technica.

Why are workers resisting training Optimus robots?

The reporting describes "disgruntled employees pushing back against training their robotic replacements," a dynamic Ars Technica frames as one of the central obstacles to Tesla's robotics pivot. The source material does not include direct quotes from the workers themselves, only the characterization that resistance is occurring inside the plant as line staff are asked to help teach the machines the tasks those staff currently perform.

What technical problems is Optimus V3 facing?

The newest version, Optimus V3, has run into manufacturing snags tied to production-line equipment that struggles to precisely align components, along with limits on how fast the line can run, according to The Information's reporting cited by Ars Technica. The robot's hands and forearms are described as containing more than 100 small components, including screws, that human workers must assemble manually — an imperfect process that has produced newly built robots requiring immediate fixes. Touch sensors on the hands have also proven unreliable, prompting Tesla to develop a glove-like layer of replaceable sensors rather than swap out an entire hand when sensors fail, per the same reporting. Ars Technica also notes that Optimus's AI capabilities remain "insufficient for general-purpose operation," underscoring that the challenge is not purely mechanical.

Can Tesla hit 1,000 robots a week by the end of 2026?

Tesla has scaled Optimus output to "hundreds of robots per week" but is targeting production above 1,000 units weekly by the end of 2026, Ars Technica reported based on The Information's account. Whether the company closes that gap depends on resolving the hand-assembly bottleneck and the line-speed limits described in the reporting; none of the source material offers a company-issued production figure to confirm or contradict the target. Tesla did not respond with its own public numbers in the material reviewed for this story, so the 1,000-per-week goal stands as a target rather than a confirmed output.

What has Musk said about Optimus's potential?

Musk told analysts on Tesla's second-quarter 2026 earnings call that Optimus could become "the biggest product ever," while also acknowledging that building an autonomous humanoid robot able to handle a wide range of tasks is "one of the hardest things to solve," according to Ars Technica's account of the call. Ars Technica frames that acknowledgment against Musk's history of predictions that have not materialized on schedule, without disputing the substance of the remark itself.

What happens to Model S and Model X production?

With Model S and Model X manufacturing halted at Fremont as of May 2026, per the reporting, Tesla has committed floor space and labor to Optimus instead of resuming sedan and SUV output there. The source material does not indicate whether Tesla plans to revive Model S or Model X production at another facility or has set a timeline for doing so. That leaves an open question for shareholders and dealers about the long-term status of two of Tesla's original passenger vehicles as the company reallocates Fremont toward robotics.

The broader test for Tesla is less about any single hand sensor or torque motor than whether general-purpose humanoid robots can be manufactured at automotive-style volume while the underlying AI and mechanical hardware are still being finalized simultaneously. Traditional industrial robots — robotic arms bolted to a single station — have automated narrow tasks in factories for decades. Tesla and rivals in the humanoid-robot field are betting that pairing more dexterous hardware with advancing AI models can produce machines flexible enough to work alongside people rather than in isolated cells, a wager whose outcome remains unresolved in the material reviewed here.