Tesla has clearly been struggling to catch up with much more advanced rivals in the race to build a humanoid robot that can do everything from assembling cars to babysitting your kids. But a new job posting for a robot trainer may reveal the strategy Tesla CEO Elon Musk has in mind for getting the company’s Optimus robot in working order: Having his workers work around the clock.
A job posting at Tesla, first spotted by Business Insider, is interesting in itself, as it provides a small peek into what’s being done to train Tesla’s bipedal robots. Job candidates are required to be between 5’7″ and 5’11″ in height because they’ll be wearing a motion capture suit and virtual reality headset “while performing designated movements and actions based on project requirements.”
The listing, for a job based in Palo Alto, California, explains that workers will be uploading data collected during the day, writing reports about observations, and even doing some debugging when necessary. Candidates must be able to “walk 7+ hours a day” while also being able to carry up to 30 pounds, which certainly sounds demanding enough. But it’s the part of the job listing that gets into the hours that really caught our attention.
There are three shifts available: 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., 4 p.m. – 12:30 a.m., and 12 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Now, that wouldn’t be so out of the ordinary for many factories but having a graveyard shift for advanced robot training does seem a bit odd. The only plausible explanation we can come up with is that Musk is truly in a mad dash to catch up with robot makers who have made incredible strides in recent years.
It also sounds like it can be grueling work, with plenty of disclaimers in the job posting like “Note that the use of VR headsets or working in a virtual environment can be disorienting and uncomfortable for some people, which can result in VR sickness symptoms.” The listing also insists that candidates “must have the ability to stand, sit, walk, stoop, bend, reach, crouch, and twist throughout the day.”
Driving ability is also a must, with a line included in the job post that notes candidates have the ability “to travel up to 25% of the time and daily regional driving.” It’s hard to tell if workers would be actually training the robots during these driving sessions or if the driving is somehow incidental to the actual training.
What does all of this pay? According to Tesla’s website, it pays “$25.25 – $48.00/hour + cash and stock awards + benefits.” But just as the hours may be odd, the job listing includes a warning that you may need to work weekends and overtime “when needed.” Again, this all seems to suggest Tesla is pushing hard to catch up on the robot tech front.
Gizmodo reached out to Tesla via email but the company got rid of its PR department years ago, so we’re not going to hold our breath about hearing back.
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