Tesla 2.0: What customers think of Model S demise, Optimus robot rise

Posted by Talbot Payne on February 6, 2026

At the Detroit Auto Show in 2011, the Tesla stand was mobbed. With its 17-inch screen, staggering acceleration and sleek looks, the Model S sedan wowed a new generation of tech-savvy buyers and redefined electric vehicles as performance cars.

Just 15 years later and the Model S is finished, along with its equally dramatic, gull-wing-door SUV doppelganger, the Model X. Cue the Optimus robot.

In Tesla Inc.’s January earnings call, CEO Elon Musk shocked the auto world in announcing the wind-down of Model S/X production. Manufacturing capacity in Fremont, California, will be converted to robot assembly — consistent with the company’s trillion-dollar market valuation based on expectations it will transform the U.S. market with autonomous humanoid and auto robots.

The new guy. An Optimus robot at the Tesla store in the Somerset Collection in Troy shares floor space with Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

The new guy. An Optimus robot at the Tesla store in the Somerset Collection in Troy shares floor space with Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

Henry Payne, The Detroit News

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