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Tesla Optimus vs Figure 03: Which Humanoid Robot Can You Actually Get in 2026?

Tesla Optimus vs Figure 03: Which Humanoid Robot Can You Actually Get in 2026?

Tesla Optimus vs Figure 03: Which Humanoid Robot Can You Actually Get in 2026?

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"173035871"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p dir&equals;"ltr">Neither robot is for sale to consumers&period; Figure 03 is working in commercial pilots&comma; including BMW&&num;8217&semi;s Spartanburg plant&comma; and Figure&&num;8217&semi;s CEO has floated a home lease of &dollar;400 to &dollar;600 a month without offering a way to sign up&period; Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s Optimus has not had its V3 reveal&comma; production at the Fremont factory is described as anticipated later this year&comma; and the first units are meant for Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s own use&period; If you want a humanoid robot in your home in 2026&comma; nobody can sell you one&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">The topic sheet pairs Optimus with Figure 02&period; That robot has been replaced&period; Figure 03 launched in October 2025 and took over from Figure 02 at BMW in 2026&period; This article compares the two companies as they stand now&comma; separates company claims from independent confirmation&comma; and gives a realistic view of when either robot could reach a home&period; It is not investment advice&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 dir&equals;"ltr">Why the Comparison Changed<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Figure 02 finished its BMW deployment in 2025&period; The Robot Report reported on June 29&comma; 2026 that the 11-month run supported production of more than 30&comma;000 BMW X3 vehicles&comma; with the robot inserting sheet-metal parts for welding in the body shop&period; BMW is now deploying Figure 03 at the same Spartanburg&comma; South Carolina plant&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s story moved the other way&period; Optimus V3&comma; also called Gen 3&comma; was expected to be revealed in the first quarter of 2026&period; On Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s April 22 earnings call&comma; Electrek reported&comma; the reveal moved to &&num;8220&semi;probably middle of this year&period;&&num;8221&semi; A tracker published in September 2026 by The Robotic Life found that no reveal had occurred by mid-September&period; Check Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s announcements before relying on this&comma; since a reveal could happen at any time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 dir&equals;"ltr">Tesla Optimus&colon; Where Things Stand<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr"><strong>Reveal Delays and Missed Targets<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Tesla has a record of missing Optimus dates&period; Electrek&&num;8217&semi;s July 2&comma; 2026 article notes that early in 2025 Elon Musk predicted about 10&comma;000 robots would be built that year&comma; with about 1&comma;000 doing productive work by year-end&period; Neither happened&period; According to The Robotic Life&comma; Musk said in January 2026 that the robots were not being deployed materially in Tesla factories&period; Electrek also reported that only several hundred units were deployed for learning purposes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">On the April call&comma; Tesla said it was delaying the reveal partly because rivals &&num;8220&semi;do a frame-by-frame analysis&&num;8221&semi; of its releases and copy them&comma; as quoted by Electrek&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr"><strong>The Fremont Conversion<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Tesla ended Model S and X production at Fremont in early May 2026 and began converting those lines for Optimus&comma; with production targeted for late July or August&comma; Electrek reported&period; Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s Q2 2026 shareholder update&comma; dated July 22&comma; uses softer language&period; It says construction began after the Model S and X lines were decommissioned&comma; with production &&num;8220&semi;anticipated later this year&period;&&num;8221&semi; It adds that initial builds will be used internally for what Tesla calls the Optimus Academy&comma; which collects training data&period; A second line is under construction at Gigafactory Texas&period; Electrek said that second factory is aimed at higher-volume Gen 4 variants&comma; with production around summer 2027&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr"><strong>Production Numbers<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">The numbers circulating are not consistent&period; Electrek&&num;8217&semi;s July 2 piece recaps targets of 50&comma;000 to 100&comma;000 units in 2026 and a one-million-unit annual run rate at Fremont by year-end&period; On the April call&comma; though&comma; Electrek reported that Musk declined to give 2026 production targets&comma; saying output would move as fast as the slowest part among about 10&comma;000 unique components&period; Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s Q2 update lists installed capacity but no unit targets&period; On July 2&comma; Musk wrote that production would be &&num;8220&semi;extremely slow at first&comma; as everything is new&comma;&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;not like making a car&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Treat the larger numbers as aspirations&period; Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s own latest document does not commit to them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr"><strong>Price and Customers<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Tesla has set no official price&period; The Robotic Life describes the often-cited &dollar;20&comma;000 to &dollar;30&comma;000 range as aspirational&period; No outside commercial customers or orders had been announced as of its September tracker&comma; and early units are reserved for internal use&period; Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s Q2 update gave no timing for external sales&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr"><strong>What Gen 3 Changes<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">The Robotic Life reports the main change is the hand&period; The design moves actuators into the forearm with a tendon-driven system and raises degrees of freedom from 11 to 22&period; The same source calls dexterous hands the hardest problem in humanoid robotics&period; Since Tesla has not shown V3 publicly&comma; these details come from reporting and not an official spec sheet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 dir&equals;"ltr">Figure 03&colon; Where Things Stand<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr"><strong>Specifications<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Figure introduced Figure 03 on October 9&comma; 2025&period; RoboZaps&comma; summarizing Figure&&num;8217&semi;s product page&comma; lists a height of 5 feet 8 inches&comma; a weight of 61 kilograms&comma; a 20-kilogram payload&comma; a 2&period;3 kilowatt-hour battery built into the torso&comma; about 5 hours of runtime&comma; and 2-kilowatt wireless charging through the feet&period; Figure has not published the hand&&num;8217&semi;s degrees of freedom&period; Forbes reported a 9 percent weight reduction from Figure 02&period; These are company figures&period; RoboZaps points out that all demonstration videos come from Figure and that no independent validation of the robot&&num;8217&semi;s autonomy exists yet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr"><strong>Commercial Deployments<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">At BMW&comma; The Robot Report says Figure 03 will handle component sequencing in logistics&comma; picking unsorted parts from containers and organizing them into trolleys for assembly delivery&period; The new model adds soft components for safety&comma; wireless charging&comma; speech-to-speech audio&comma; and hands with tactile sensors and palm cameras&period; RoboZaps also lists Catalyst Brands at a Reno distribution center as a customer&period; BMW&&num;8217&semi;s report did not say how many robots it is deploying&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">The BMW result is the strongest public evidence either company has&period; It is a named customer&comma; a named plant&comma; and a measured result from the previous model&comma; reported by an industry publication using Figure&&num;8217&semi;s CEO as a source&period; It is also a single task in a controlled environment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr"><strong>Production Scale<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">RoboZaps reports that Figure&&num;8217&semi;s BotQ factory has capacity for up to 12&comma;000 robots a year&comma; with a goal of 100&comma;000 over four years&comma; and that production reached 60 to 70 robots a week in May 2026&period; It also says 350 or more units had been allocated to research and partnerships&comma; none to consumers&period; BigGo Finance noted that Figure&&num;8217&semi;s own production chart had an unlabeled axis&comma; so the figures cannot be verified from the company&&num;8217&semi;s data&period; Outside estimates it cited&comma; which derive from outlets like Forbes&comma; put output near 60 units in February&comma; 120 in March&comma; and 240 in April&period; BigGo adds that China&&num;8217&semi;s Agibot reportedly shipped about 5&comma;000 units in three months&comma; which would put Figure well behind&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr"><strong>The Funding Picture<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Forbes reported that Figure reached a &dollar;39 billion post-money valuation in September 2025&comma; following a Series C of more than &dollar;1 billion&comma; with investors including Nvidia&comma; Microsoft&comma; Salesforce&comma; and Samsung&period; A valuation reflects investor expectations and not product readiness&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr"><strong>Home Use<&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">On May 1&comma; 2026&comma; Figure CEO Brett Adcock described a lease of &dollar;400 to &dollar;600 a month for a household robot&comma; according to Humanoids Daily&period; BigGo Finance reported he put it at roughly &dollar;600 a month in a post on Threads&period; RoboZaps found no price list&comma; no pre-order&comma; and no waitlist for Figure 03 as of July 2026&comma; and said the autonomy bar Adcock set for homes&comma; handling most household tasks all day&comma; was not met&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Price reporting conflicts&period; Forbes wrote in March 2026 that the company prices Figure 03 at &dollar;24&comma;760&comma; while RoboZaps says the widely cited &dollar;20&comma;000 figure traces to no source on Figure&&num;8217&semi;s website&period; No official Figure price list turned up in the sources reviewed&comma; so the safest reading is that Figure has not set a public price&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 dir&equals;"ltr">What These Robots Can Do Right Now<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">The public evidence is narrower than the demonstration videos suggest&period; The documented work is logistics and factory tasks&period; Figure 03 at BMW will pick unsorted parts from containers and place them into sequencing trolleys&comma; and Figure 02 spent 11 months inserting sheet-metal parts for welding&period; Forbes noted that Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff demonstrated the robot sorting parcels in a warehouse&comma; and that on March 25&comma; 2026 Figure 03 walked beside the First Lady through the White House Cross Hall and gave opening remarks in 11 languages&period; Adcock claimed full autonomy for that appearance&comma; and Forbes reported the claim without independent confirmation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">On the software side&comma; RoboZaps says Figure introduced Helix 02 in January 2026&comma; a single neural network that controls the full body from camera input to motor commands and replaced more than 100&comma;000 lines of hand-written C&plus;&plus;&period; That is Figure&&num;8217&semi;s own description&period; Adcock told Humanoids Daily that a &&num;8220&semi;Never Fall&&num;8221&semi; protocol lets a robot limp to a maintenance bay on its own&comma; which matters for round-the-clock operation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s documented use is training&period; Its Q2 update says early Fremont builds will go to the Optimus Academy for data collection and feature development&period; Nobody outside Tesla has seen an Optimus perform paid work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 dir&equals;"ltr">Tesla Optimus vs Figure 03 Side by Side<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">On availability&comma; Figure is ahead&period; It has paying commercial users&comma; a named factory deployment&comma; and a published specification sheet&period; Tesla has a robot it has not shown in its latest form&comma; no outside customers&comma; and a factory it is still converting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">On scale&comma; the evidence is thin in both cases&period; Tesla has a record of unmet targets and says output will start slowly&period; Figure&&num;8217&semi;s production figures cannot be checked from its own charts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">On price&comma; neither has set a purchase price&period; Figure has floated a lease&comma; and Tesla has an aspirational range&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">On independent verification&comma; Figure&&num;8217&semi;s BMW result is the most concrete outside confirmation either company has&comma; although it covers one task in one plant&period; Most of Figure&&num;8217&semi;s other claims come from Figure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 dir&equals;"ltr">When Could a Humanoid Robot Reach a Home&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">The honest answer is not in 2026&period; Figure&&num;8217&semi;s own CEO set a bar for home use that&comma; per RoboZaps&comma; had not been met as of July&period; Forbes cited reports of a late 2026 consumer launch&comma; without detail&period; Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s Giga Texas robot factory is aimed at summer 2027&comma; and its first units are for internal training data&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">For buyers&comma; the practical signal to watch is a published price&comma; an ordering page&comma; and a delivery date&period; At the time of writing&comma; neither company has all three&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 dir&equals;"ltr">Frequently Asked Questions<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr">Can you buy a Tesla Optimus robot&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">No&period; Tesla has set no official price&comma; announced no outside customers&comma; and said initial builds will be used internally&period; The V3 reveal had not happened as of mid-September 2026&comma; according to The Robotic Life&period; Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s Q2 update says production is anticipated later this year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr">Can you buy a Figure 03&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Not as a consumer&period; RoboZaps found no price list&comma; pre-order&comma; or waitlist as of July 2026&period; Figure works with commercial customers&comma; including BMW at its Spartanburg plant&comma; and its CEO has floated a home lease of &dollar;400 to &dollar;600 a month without offering one&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr">How much will Optimus cost&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Tesla has not said&period; A range of &dollar;20&comma;000 to &dollar;30&comma;000 is often cited&comma; but The Robotic Life describes it as aspirational&period; Tesla&&num;8217&semi;s financial documents do not list a price&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 dir&equals;"ltr">What happened to Figure 02&quest;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Figure 02 completed an 11-month deployment at BMW in 2025&comma; supporting more than 30&comma;000 X3 vehicles&comma; according to The Robot Report&period; BMW is now deploying Figure 03 at the same plant&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 dir&equals;"ltr"><strong>References and Sources<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">The Robot Report&comma; &&num;8220&semi;BMW Group deploys Figure 03 humanoid after tests with previous version&&num;8221&semi;&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;therobotreport&period;com&sol;bmw-group-deploys-figure-03-humanoid-after-tests-previous-version&sol;">https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;therobotreport&period;com&sol;bmw-group-deploys-figure-03-humanoid-after-tests-previous-version&sol;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Electrek&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Tesla pushes Optimus V3 reveal later this year&comma; again&&num;8221&semi;&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;electrek&period;co&sol;2026&sol;04&sol;22&sol;tesla-optimus-production-fremont-model-sx-line&sol;">https&colon;&sol;&sol;electrek&period;co&sol;2026&sol;04&sol;22&sol;tesla-optimus-production-fremont-model-sx-line&sol;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Electrek&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Elon Musk shuts down &&num;8216&semi;4D chess&&num;8217&semi; theory on Tesla Optimus production&&num;8221&semi;&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;electrek&period;co&sol;2026&sol;07&sol;02&sol;musk-shuts-down-optimus-4d-chess-theory&sol;">https&colon;&sol;&sol;electrek&period;co&sol;2026&sol;07&sol;02&sol;musk-shuts-down-optimus-4d-chess-theory&sol;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Tesla Investor Relations&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Q2 2026 Update&&num;8221&semi;&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;assets-ir&period;tesla&period;com&sol;tesla-contents&sol;IR&sol;TSLA-Q2-2026-Update&period;pdf">https&colon;&sol;&sol;assets-ir&period;tesla&period;com&sol;tesla-contents&sol;IR&sol;TSLA-Q2-2026-Update&period;pdf<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">The Robotic Life&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Tesla Optimus Gen 3&colon; Promised vs&period; Delivered &lpar;Sept 2026 Scorecard&rpar;&&num;8221&semi;&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theroboticlife&period;com&sol;robot-of-the-week-tesla-optimus-gen-3&sol;">https&colon;&sol;&sol;theroboticlife&period;com&sol;robot-of-the-week-tesla-optimus-gen-3&sol;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">RoboZaps&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Figure 03 Review 2026&colon; Price&comma; Release Date and Is It For Sale&quest;&&num;8221&semi;&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;blog&period;robozaps&period;com&sol;b&sol;figure-03-review">https&colon;&sol;&sol;blog&period;robozaps&period;com&sol;b&sol;figure-03-review<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Forbes&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Figure AI Robot Appears With Melania Trump Amid Rollout&&num;8221&semi;&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;forbes&period;com&sol;sites&sol;antoniopequenoiv&sol;2026&sol;03&sol;25&sol;what-to-know-about-the-ai-robot-and-its-billionaire-owner-that-appeared-with-melania-trump&sol;">https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;forbes&period;com&sol;sites&sol;antoniopequenoiv&sol;2026&sol;03&sol;25&sol;what-to-know-about-the-ai-robot-and-its-billionaire-owner-that-appeared-with-melania-trump&sol;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">Humanoids Daily&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Inside the Campus&colon; Figure&&num;8217&semi;s Plan for 24&sol;7 Autonomy and Leasable Home Robots&&num;8221&semi;&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;humanoidsdaily&period;com&sol;news&sol;inside-the-campus-figure-s-plan-for-24-7-autonomy-and-leasable-home-robots">https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;humanoidsdaily&period;com&sol;news&sol;inside-the-campus-figure-s-plan-for-24-7-autonomy-and-leasable-home-robots<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p dir&equals;"ltr">BigGo Finance&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Humanoid Robots Entering Homes&quest; Figure Floats &dollar;600 Monthly Subscription&comma; But Production Data Conceals a Catch&&num;8221&semi;&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;finance&period;biggo&period;com&sol;news&sol;F7mY&lowbar;J0B2jrwCtglGH2K">https&colon;&sol;&sol;finance&period;biggo&period;com&sol;news&sol;F7mY&lowbar;J0B2jrwCtglGH2K<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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