Musk Disputes Report of December Tesla Optimus Reservations With a One-Word Reply

Tesla could open Optimus reservations in early December, robotics investor Modar Alaoui told The San Francisco Standard, saying Tesla told him reservations would open during the December 1–2 Humanoids Summit in San Mateo or in the following days. Alaoui, an investor at ALM Ventures and organizer of the summit, said Tesla is a key conference partner and plans to demonstrate Optimus V3 at the event. The Standard put the expected price above $20,000, while the reservation deposit has not been established.

Elon Musk appeared to deny the plan. Responding on X on October 30, the Tesla chief executive posted a single word: “No.” The conflicting accounts leave any proposed reservation opening disputed, and the dispute matters because it separates a marketing moment from a delivery promise. Musk has put deliveries to outside companies around the end of 2027 — roughly a year after any December reservation window would open.

Musk’s own timeline explains the gap. During Tesla’s October earnings call he said Optimus production had started at the Fremont facility, where Model X and Model S production is being converted to robot manufacturing, but acknowledged the robot still has problems with its AI, electromechanical design and operating duration. “I do expect these issues to be solved around the end of next year,” he said. Tesla says it needs to produce between 10,000 and 20,000 robots to gather training data as they practice tasks, and Musk has said the Fremont facility should reach production of 20,000 Optimus robots per week by roughly the end of 2027. A reservation, if it ever opens, would be a deposit on that schedule — not a delivery date.