If you took a look at Elon Musk's new Optimus robots and self-driving vehicles and thought "where have I seen this before?" you are not alone.
You might be thinking of the 2004 futuristic Will Smith sci-fi film I, Robot, because the film's director is convinced that's where Musk got his design ideas.
Filmmaker Alex Proyas is calling out the CEO for ripping off the look of the robots and vehicles from his film, which really do bear a striking resemblance to each other.
Tesla's new products were instantly controversial on social media when Musk unveiled them. Many felt the robots, which Tesla has marketed as in-house servants and replacements for workers like bartenders, struck many online as creepily dystopian.
Then there were the Cybertaxi and Robovan, the latter of which reminded people more of a toaster (or a tape dispenser) than a cool new automobile. All three were such duds after their big debut that they caused Tesla's stock price to dip.
But for Proyas, the products are more than creepy and ugly—they're direct rip-offs of the designs from his film. The robots themselves are a bit of a stretch—they just sort of look like generic humanoid robots, really.
The Cybertaxi and Robovan on the other hand? Yeah...those look a lot like Proyas' ideas. And it doesn't help that the big launch event where they were unveiled was literally called "We, Robot." So you can't really blame Proyas for tweeting:
"Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please?"
It certainly isn't surprising to see that Musk seems to have jacked someone else's style—he is still often known, especially by his bamboozled fanboys, as the founder of Tesla, an inaccurate superlative he has done little to dispel.
Of course, Musk's hordes of right-wing sycophants mocked Proyas as a man who "feels you inspired the future yet you're trying to dunk on the person who made it a reality."
But many others saw what Proyas saw, and definitely weren't impressed.
Anyway, a horde of human-like robots created by an openly fascist far-right weirdo will surely go much better than the robot-takeover from I, Robot that obviously inspired it. What could go wrong?!
