Optimus was unveiled at Tesla's AI (artificial-intelligence) day By Technology editor Fans of Tesla and Elon Musk were enthralled by the unveiling of Optimus, a prototype humanoid robot, in California last week. I also enjoyed the theatrics - but I'm not alone in wondering why, apart from the wow factor, Optimus had to be human-like. And while the fans hate any perceived criticism, Mr Musk himself has said Optimus is nowhere near market-ready. The argument made for humanoids is they are best equipped to work with human tools, in human environments. People may feel more comfortable interacting with something that looks like a bit like them. And of course, they look great. But how practical are they? Legs v wheels "A lot of companies work in the area of humanoids because it's interesting for the public to see," Owen Nicholson, chief executive of Slamcore, which specialises in sensor-driven vision, says. "But wheel-based robots and even drones are so much easier to control. The amount of work that goes into just getting a humanoid to stand upright is huge." To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video can not be played Media caption,