Tesla third-generation Optimus robot leaked, Saudi Arabia's all-in on humanoid robots, and more ...

Major leak: we get a taste of Tesla’s Gen 3 Optimus

Tesla still hasn’t officially unveiled Optimus Gen 3 ... but Tesla’s own app may have just done it for them.

Version 4.60.5 of the Android app contained 3D image assets labeled “robot_home_full_body_gen3,” giving us what appears to be our clearest look yet at the version of Optimus Tesla intends to mass-produce.

And there are some significant changes.

Compared with Gen 2.5, there’s much less exposed machinery. The pelvis and hips now have flexible joint covers sealing off bearings and pinch points. The gold-toned lower legs have become matte black. The body panels fit much more tightly, and the feet look more like integrated boots.

And perhaps most importantly, the arms and hands look substantially more finished. We're essentially approach "real shippable product" stage now.

That's good timing, because Tesla is planning to scale Optimus production very, very soon.

Tesla has said the new Optimus hands will have 22 degrees of freedom, getting significantly closer to the dexterity of a human hand. That matters because hands are one of the biggest barriers between a humanoid that can walk around impressively and one that can actually do useful work.

Gen 3 has always been the Optimus generation Tesla says is being engineered for mass production. Tesla has already started converting former Model S and Model X manufacturing space in Fremont for Optimus production, with much bigger capacity ambitions beyond that.

And finding these models inside the Tesla app is interesting for another reason: it suggests Tesla is building the software layer for owners or fleet managers to see and potentially manage robots alongside cars, Powerwalls, and the rest of the Tesla ecosystem.

A leaked app render obviously isn’t a launch.

But it's cool to see, and it's a hint that something major is near.

Robots hit TV, fashion and theme parks

And speaking of stages, robots had quite a week.

Unitree humanoids made the America’s Got Talent finale alongside Chinese dancer Wu Yufei, after earning a Golden Buzzer earlier in the competition.

Then four Unitree robots walked through Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II for Vogue World, in a section appropriately called “The Age of Intelligence.”

And in China, AGIBOT and Chimelong opened the first phase of a robot-heavy theme park deployment with more than 300 robots across entertainment, education, visitor services, and hotels.

Suddenly ... robots are everywhere.

Japan’s military studies humanoids

Japan is also taking a serious look at humanoid robots for defense.

The country’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency is exploring whether humanoids could take on jobs inside the Self-Defense Forces including base patrols, logistics, equipment transport, reconnaissance, and disaster response.

The important qualifier: Japan is not talking about humanoid combat troops.

The focus is support work, driven in significant part by a very Japanese problem: demographics. The Self-Defense Forces are struggling to recruit enough people as Japan's birth rate and declining population isn't supporting the legally-warranted size of army. Robots could potentially take over some of the physical work that does not require a human soldier.

There are no procurement contracts yet, no deployment schedule, and no fleet size.

The government is still studying the technology and is expected to invite companies and universities to demonstrate what their robots can do.

But national militaries formally testing where humanoids fit into their workforce is another indication of how quickly this technology is moving from robotics labs into institutional planning.

Number of the day #1: 80%

Eighty percent.

According to IDTechEx, around 80% of humanoid robots and prototypes developed so far are being designed for industrial environments.

That’s a useful reality check on all the talk about a humanoid in every home.

Right now, the center of gravity is factories, automotive plants, warehouses and other workplaces where the economic value of automation is relatively easy to calculate.

Home robots might eventually be the enormous market.

But industry is where most humanoid companies are trying to get good enough — and useful enough — first.

Number of the day #2: 10,000

And one more number of the day: ten thousand.

That’s the number of humanoid robots that could be deployed across Saudi Arabia over the next five years under a partnership between London-based robotics company Humanoid AI and Saudi company QSS AI & Robotics.

This is more than a memorandum and a press release ... Humanoid AI and QSS have already opened the Humanoid Lounge at QSS headquarters in Riyadh: a public showroom where companies and visitors can see the robots operating, attend workshops, and interact with them directly.

At the center is Humanoid’s HMND 01 Alpha Wheeled, an industrial humanoid platform developed in the UK.

But the showroom is really the front door to something much bigger.

Humanoid and QSS have established a pre-order framework for up to 10,000 robots over five years, targeting manufacturing, logistics, energy, retail, public infrastructure and other industries.

Interestingly, Saudi Arabia doesn’t just want to import them: QSS plans to handle local assembly at its Riyadh Robotics Factory. That combination is worth paying attention to: showroom, sales channel, local manufacturing, and a potential deployment pipeline all being built together.

There is an important qualifier here. “Up to 10,000” under a pre-order framework is not the same thing as 10,000 robots already purchased, paid for and deployed. Assuming it goes through, however, it's a big, big number. For most of the humanoid industry, a deployment of dozens of robots is still news. Hundreds is significant. A framework designed around as many as ten thousand robots in a single country starts to look more and more like massive industrial infrastructure.

And Saudi Arabia may be an unusually interesting place to try it.

The Kingdom is spending heavily to build new industries and infrastructure under Vision 2030, and it can make large, centralized technology investments in manufacturing, logistics, energy, tourism and public facilities.

The Humanoid Lounge also gives the company something this industry badly needs: a place where potential customers can move beyond watching polished demo videos and actually see the machines before deciding where they might make economic sense.

If Humanoid and QSS get anywhere close to the 10,000 mark, Saudi Arabia could become one of the world’s most important proving grounds for humanoid robots at industrial scale.

Sources

• Tesla Optimus Gen 3 — Not a Tesla App:
  https://www.notateslaapp.com/news/4725/tesla-app-leaks-new-optimus-gen-3-robot-design

• America’s Got Talent / Unitree — Interesting Engineering:
  https://interestingengineering.com/ai-robotics/unitree-robots-chinese-dance-americas-got-talent-finale

• Vogue World 2026 runway robots — Vogue:
  https://www.vogue.com/article/the-story-behind-the-runway-robots-at-vogue-world-2026-milano

• AGIBOT / Chimelong 300-robot deployment — PR Newswire:
  https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/agibot-and-chimelong-launch-large-scale-embodied-ai-theme-park-with-more-than-300-robots-302888863.html

• Japan studying humanoids for military support — Militarnyi:
  https://militarnyi.com/en/news/japan-military-personnel-humanoid-robots/

• 80% of humanoids designed for industrial use — Assembly / IDTechEx:
  https://www.assemblymag.com/articles/100426-80-of-humanoid-robots-are-being-designed-for-industrial-use

• Saudi Arabia / up to 10,000 humanoids — Arab News:
  https://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/saudi-push-gathers-pace-as-global-humanoid-robot-sales-total-7000-3002545