Davos 2026: Humanoid robots a must for Musk by next year as Tesla CEO eyes Europe, China nod for self-driving system

Tesla is looking to sell sell its Optimus robots to the public by the end of next year, according to chief executive officer Elon Musk, who's said the carmaker's fortunes will be increasingly dependent on humanoid machines.

The company is already using some of the robots to do simple tasks in its factory, Musk said Thursday at the WEF. He predicted Optimus would be "doing more complex tasks" by the end of 2026.

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Sales to the public will begin when Tesla is "confident that it's very high reliability, very high safety, and the range of functionality is also very high," Musk said.

The comments offer a more concrete timeline for the future business line, which Musk sees as a key focus for Tesla going forward, alongside artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. The automaker's core business of selling cars has suffered from a stale product lineup and the loss of EV incentives in the US, leading to two consecutive years of declining deliveries.

While Musk regularly talks up the potential of Optimus, he's been relatively vague about production timelines and targets.

During a January 2025 earnings call, he said his "very rough guess" was that Tesla would start delivering Optimus robots to other companies in the second half of 2026.

FSD Approvals

Meanwhile, Tesla is likely to win regulatory approval in Europe and China for its Full Self-Driving (FSD) system as early as next month, said Musk as the electric automaker looks to boost software revenue amid slowing vehicle sales. Musk also expects to sell humanoid robots to the public by the end of next year.

The approvals would be crucial for Tesla, which is under pressure to generate revenue from software and services and is looking to monetise FSD outside the US.

"We hope to get Supervised Full Self-Driving approval in Europe, hopefully next month, and then may be a similar timing for China," Musk said.

Shares of the automaker rose about 1.5% after the comment.

Tesla has been seeking approval for the FSD system in Europe, where tougher vehicle safety rules and a fragmented regulatory framework have slowed deployment compared with the US

The Dutch vehicle authority RDW said in November it expects to decide on FSD software in February. Tesla had said once it secures approval in the Netherlands, other EU countries can recognize the exemption and allow a rollout ahead of a formal EU approval.

Musk has been positioning Tesla as a self-driving and humanoid robotics company, even as most of its revenue still comes from its EV business, which faces stiff competition.

Registration of Tesla's vehicles fell 11.4% in California last year, with its market share in the US state slipping below 50%, according to a report by the California New Car Dealers Association. The company reported a second consecutive drop in vehicle deliveries in 2025, ceding its position as the largest electric vehicle maker in the world to China's BYD.