Elon Musk is launching a new toy! Musk is now collaborating with Saudi Arabia and this has been very criticized. Tesla’s co-founder has come up with new technological ideas having to do with robots… yes, robots! We have always thought about the future and robots were important elements in that far aways future, but it is not that far now. Let’s see what Elon Musk’s company is manufacturing this time.
Elon Musk’s Star Wars look alike robots
Elon Musk attended the Saudi-US Investment Forum to present humanoid robots that are meant to be used in the housework of our houses, boring activites we don’t like to do. These robots look like they were taken from the Star Wars world, even Musk compared them to C-3PO and R2-D2, maybe he was such a fan of the movies that he wanted to make them real.
Musk stated in front of everyone in the Forum that everybody will like to have a personal robot, a robot called Optimus. Tesla is a strong industrial automation company and this ambitious project is believed to manufacture a million Optimus robots per year. However, people were not wondering when these robots will be out in the market or anything like it, they were talking about Elon Musk’s business relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia controversy
This Forum was in Saudi Arabia, a country known for not respecting Human Rights. Women, activists, women migrant domestic workers rights and the death penalty are what people are most concerned about. Amnesty International said ‘’women continued to face discrimination in law and practice, including in matters of marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance’’. Having this in mind, Elon Musk comes to this country to show his new robots that will be able to do most things women can’t in Saudi Arabia.
Let’s remember the fact that the Optimus robots were designed to have more freedom to move, work than expected, so it is no surprise that people concerned with human rights were critical about this event and this business relationship.
Technology development vs. human rights
People are not sure about the need for these robots, with similar features of the ones in Star Wars, hanging around our houses to clean. It is thought that the huge technological advances Elon Musk has made with his different companies like electric cars or even rockets, would set the pace for his future developments but…
This new creation to automate everyday tasks to improve our quality of life has not been taken very well by society. Instead of focusing on the robots, what was most striking was the involvement of Saudi Arabia in the project.
These robots have been seen as the inability of technology pushin humanity towards better quality life, technology seems to advance very fast whereas human rights in some countries are still held back. This might be a great debate for experts in the field, isn’t it?
Are these robots an advance for humanity?
Do you think we really need this type of technology? I mean, not everybody sees having their housework done as a necessity, it would have been better to use that technology to properly help all humanity in other aspects. Am I right?
From now and then, Elon Musk is on the news for some billionaire ideas only he would have thought about. To no one’s great surprise, Musk is the talk of the town once again, this time for his business relationship with Saudi Arabia. Maybe if he had thought about other countries to partner with, he and his new technology development wouldn’t have been so much criticized. Who knows?