A paywalled report says Tesla’s Fremont line built several hundred Optimus robots a week in August. Most stay inside Tesla for testing and data collection. Hands and the robot’s ability to handle new tasks remain the main reported limits.
What was reported
On September 25, 2026, The Information reported that Tesla was building several hundred Optimus robots per week in August, up from a few dozen a week in Q2. The account came from unnamed people familiar with the program.
We have not read The Information’s article; it is paywalled. The details below come through Electrek (Fred Lambert, Sep 25) and The Verge (Stevie Bonifield, Sep 25). Both say they are relaying The Information.
Electrek called the jump “roughly 10 times” Q2 output. That multiplier is Electrek’s math, not a figure from Tesla or The Information.
Managers want more than 1,000 robots a week by year-end, with an eventual target of about 20,000 a week.
The Information, via Electrek / The Verge, Sept. 25, 2026
As relayed by those outlets, The Information also reported:
- Most units are used inside Tesla for testing, training, and data collection. Factory robots stay in supervised areas and run specific programmed tasks.
- The V3 robots now in production are not the commercial version.
- The hand and forearm contain more than 100 screws and small parts assembled by hand. Some stations have alignment problems that lead to rework.
- Some touch sensors have reliability problems. Tesla reportedly plans a replaceable “sensing glove” next year.
- Some outside suppliers (many in China) can make motors and gears in small batches but struggle at higher volume.
- Three people told The Information that Optimus’s software cannot yet handle a wide range of tasks reliably, can act unpredictably on new situations, and still takes several days to learn basic tasks.
- Tesla has reportedly logged over 500,000 hours of training data and wants to double that by year-end. It has hired data collectors in motion-capture gear and set up hubs in Colorado, Arizona, and Florida.
- Tesla reportedly plans to lease rather than sell Optimus to a short list of companies.
Electrek, The Verge, and others all trace back to one report: The Information’s. Repeating it across outlets does not make it independently confirmed.
What Tesla has said
- Tesla’s Q2 2026 Update (SEC filing, July 22, 2026) says Tesla has shut down the Model S and Model X lines at Fremont and is installing first-generation Optimus lines, with production expected “soon.”
- The same filing says the first Optimus builds will go to Tesla’s “Optimus Academy” for training data and development, not to customers.
- The Q2 capacity table lists Optimus in California and Texas as “Construction.” Tesla published no Optimus unit count.
- Tesla’s Q3 production and deliveries release (early October) contains no Optimus figures.
- Tesla has not commented publicly on The Information’s numbers, as far as we can find.
Hands still the bottleneck
On the reported facts, these robots look more like tools for gathering training data and finding manufacturing problems than a finished product shipping to customers. That matches Tesla’s own Q2 language about the Optimus Academy.
1. Handling new tasks. A robot that needs days of training per job and works in a fenced-off area is closer to a special-purpose machine than a general helper.
2. Hands that hold up. A hand with 100+ hand-assembled parts and fragile touch sensors is hard to make durable and cheap to fix. A replaceable glove helps servicing; it does not mean the sensor problem is solved.
Tesla’s filings support the setting (S/X lines out, Optimus lines in, early units going to data collection). They do not confirm the weekly rates, the hand part count, the glove, the 500,000-hour figure, or the leasing plan.
Sources
- The Information, Sept. 25, 2026 — original report. Paywalled; not accessed. Attributed only through secondary sources below.
- Electrek, Sept. 25, 2026
- The Verge, Sept. 25, 2026
- The Next Web — search result only; not fetched in full
- Tesla Q2 2026 Update (SEC)
- Tesla Q3 2026 Production & Deliveries (SEC)
OptimusRumors is an independent publication covering Tesla Optimus and humanoid robotics. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by Tesla.
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