• Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus played a starring role at the company’s Hollywood robotaxi event.
• The robots served drinks to attendees, posed for selfies and even danced on a stage.
• Elon Musk said Tesla wanted to show that Optimus was “not a pre-made video” by broadcasting it to participants.

Elon Musk unveiled the robot taxi on a Hollywood set on Thursday evening – but Tesla’s Optimus robots played the main role.

After showing off the company’s Cybercab and Robovan at a glitzy event at the Warner Bros. film studio in Los Angeles, Musk bought up several of Tesla’s humanoid robots to mingle.

His talk ended with Optimus robots dancing on a lighted stage – a nod to the bot’s first unveiling in 2021, in which a man in a skin-tight bodysuit designed to look like a robot danced on stage.

Videos and images posted on social media showed an Optimus robot in a bartender uniform pouring drinks and other robots interacting with attendees and posing for selfies.

Tesla investor Matthew Donegan-Ryan, who attended the event, told Business Insider he saw the Optimus robots pouring drinks, handing out desserts and interacting with attendees.

“One of the things we wanted to show tonight was that Optimus is not a pre-made video, it’s not sealed off,” Musk said during the Robotaxi unveiling.

“The Optimus robots will walk among you. Please be kind to the Optimus robots,” he added.

Tesla has previously released videos showing the Optimus robot performing yoga stretches, picking up an egg and squatting.

At the event, Musk said he expected the Optimus robot to cost $20,000 to $30,000 in the long term. The billionaire previously told Tesla investors that the company may sell Optimus externally by the end of next year.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment sent outside normal business hours.