【Australia】

Tesla CEO Elon Musk ended a deeply technical AI Day event with a head-turning announcement: a humanoid robot.

After a dancing human dressed as a robot moved off stage at Thursday's invitation-only event in Palo Alto,Australia California, Musk introduced Tesla Bot. It will be based on Tesla's Autopilot system and is essentially a humanoid form of the car. Musk considers the electric vehicles "fully sentient robots on wheels." So might as well make it a human-like bot!

Meet Tesla Bot. Credit: Tesla Livestream

The bot looks like a human with two arms (and two hands with five fingers) and two legs. It'll stand at 5 feet 8 inches and weigh 125 pounds. It can only run 5 mph, which Musk assured was slow enough for most people to escape if something goes wrong: "If you can run faster than that it’ll be fine."

Most importantly, Musk said it would be friendly ("of course") and operate dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks as it "navigates a world built for humans."

Musk repeated that the humanoid would have a screen on its head and eight cameras, like on Tesla cars that can drive with assistance from Autopilot. "It's all the same tools we see in the car," he said.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

As to what the bot will actually do, Musk wants to start with tasks that humans don't want to do. He mentioned examples in a factory, like retrieving a bolt and attaching it to a car or out in the real world, like going to a store and getting groceries.

He envisions being able to talk to it and Tesla Bot will figure out what to do without explicit training, whether that's working with a tool or carrying a bag. Tesla Bot 1.0 will be focused on helping with general tasks, but Musk didn't rule out that eventually the robot could serve as something more.

"It can be your buddy too," he said. "Buy one and it can be your friend."

SEE ALSO: Robots doing parkour is cool but watching them fall is way more fun

Musk didn't give a price range for the device, but said Tesla wants to make sure the bot isn't "super expensive." A prototype is expected some time next year, so be on the lookout.

As Musk mused, "I think this will be quite profound."

Related Video: Elon Musk's worst tweets of all time (so far)

Topics Artificial Intelligence Tesla Elon Musk

• Games
• Digital Culture
• Science
• Tech
• Entertainment
• Social Good
• Life
• Deals

• The State of 5G: When It's Coming, How Fast It Will Be & The Sci
• NASA spots explosion of X
• The BBC's in trouble for a story it ran on the new king of Thailand
• Kid Rock is selling Trump shirts and they're as bad as you'd expect
• NYT Connections hints and answers for April 26: Tips to solve 'Connections' #685.
• IKEA lets you decorate your living room like 'Friends,' 'The Simpsons'
• Lil Nas X adopted some nice dogs with the internet's help
• Female journalist has defiant response to troll publishing nude photos of her
• Is it 'Thunderbolts*' or *The New Avengers'?
• This is a love story: Everyone's obsessed with the black jumpsuit from 'Fleabag'

• Everything Google announced at its 'Launch Night In' event
• A wealthy human just purchased Trump's drawing of, uh, whatever that thing is
• How to get involved in the election if you're too young to vote
• Microsoft's new Surface Pro X has a creepy eye contact feature for video chats
• The title of Hillary Clinton's upcoming campaign memoir has been unveiled
• Behold South Korea's adorable new First Dog
• J.K. Rowling only needed 3 tweets to turn the tables on these trolls
• Brooklyn pizzeria offering 'comforting words' as delivery menu item
• Spruce up your Zoom video calls with these helpful add
• Google announces its new $99 smart speaker, Nest Audio

• Best portable power station deal: Save 44% on the Jackery Explorer 100 v2
• Billie Eilish's 'Bad Guy' music video inspired some very good memes
• Google Maps now shows photos of popular dishes at restaurants
• Here are the cities where you can get mobile 5G service from major carriers in the U.S.
• Best speaker deal: Save $30 on the JBL Clip 5
• Dash cam captures intense video of attempted car jacking
• A new underwater robot captured eerie, high
• 'Minecraft: Story Mode' will be discontinued on June 25
• Best IPL deal: Save $80 on Braun IPL Silk·Expert
• Pornhub wishes you a horny Christmas in surprisingly SFW ad

• Virtual Reality: The True Cost of Admission (and Why It Doesn't Matter)
• Turns out, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote IRL and on Twitter
• Taylor Swift took a powerful stand in the fight for LGBTQ equality
• 6 things to know about Disneyland's new Star Wars park: Preview
• NYT Connections hints and answers for May 1: Tips to solve 'Connections' #690.
• Google Maps now shows photos of popular dishes at restaurants
• A new underwater robot captured eerie, high
• This year's Stanley Cup Final will be huge for fans of 'The Office'
• NYT Connections Sports Edition hints and answers for April 23: Tips to solve Connections #212
• 'Kids' is a mesmerizing iOS arthouse game: Review