Musk sees Saudi future with robots and self-driving taxis

Autonomous taxis and humanoid robots will soon be on the streets of Saudi Arabia, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The world’s wealthiest person told the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh that it would be “very exciting to have autonomous vehicles here in the kingdom” and that Tesla’s Optimus robots would also be deployed, without naming any dates.

Musk said he expected robotics to boost the global economy to “10 times the size” by aiding productivity.

“They can walk around, they can interact. I think we’re headed to a radically different world,” he said.

Musk, who is part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s high-level delegation to the Gulf, also touted his tunneling venture, The Boring Company, as a way to solve Riyadh’s chronic traffic congestion.

Musk faced ridicule for the Optimus project last year after it turned out a demonstration of the robots was remote-controlled by humans