Elon Musk Shoots Down Report That Optimus Orders Open in December

Image: Tesla

Elon Musk replied “No” on Friday to a question about whether Tesla will open ordering for its Optimus humanoid robot in December, undercutting a same-day report that reservations were about to start.

Rachyl Jones of The San Francisco Standard wrote on X that Tesla is opening reservations for the robot in early December, citing an unnamed source. Tesla has not confirmed any consumer reservation window.

Robert Scoble quoted that post and asked, “Optimus ordering coming in December?” In the same post he also jokingly asked @Bot to watch for it and order him one. Musk’s one-word reply, “No,” came under that exchange at 3:08 PM PT.

@Scobleizer @bot No

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2026

That reply is the only primary-source response so far to the December claim. Because Scoble’s post mixed a straight timing question with the Bot joke, Musk’s “No” should be read as a reply to that post rather than a longer statement from Tesla about when orders will open.

Production progress is clearer than the sales calendar. Tesla said in its Q3 update that production-quality Optimus bots have started coming off high-volume lines in Fremont, California, and that the current manufacturing process is suitable for a commercial product even as hardware keeps iterating.

CFO Vaibhav Taneja said on the same earnings call that Tesla is already building a larger Optimus factory in Austin that can make far more robots than the Fremont line. Musk has separately said Optimus and Cybercab will be the vast majority of Tesla’s value, which is why reservation timing draws so much attention.

Neither Tesla nor Musk has posted a public order page or a firm consumer sales date alongside Friday’s reply.

When do you think Tesla will actually open Optimus reservations?