Selected employees at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Grünheide will soon wear backpack-mounted cameras while working. According to Handelsblatt, citing an internal Tesla communication, Tesla will use the captured movement data to train its humanoid robot, Optimus.
The cameras will record how employees grip tools, handle components and perform individual work steps. Tesla will use the data to train Optimus to carry out these tasks independently. The company already follows this approach in the US, where so-called Data Collection Operators perform specific movement sequences to train the humanoid robot.
It remains unclear what role Optimus could play at the Grünheide plant in the future. The report also does not specify the conditions under which employees will participate in the data collection. According to Handelsblatt, the initiative has not yet been discussed with the works council, even though technical systems capable of monitoring employee behaviour or performance may be subject to co-determination under German labour law. Tesla did not respond to the newspaper’s enquiry.
While Grünheide is set to provide movement data, Tesla’s robotics business is taking shape at another German site: Reutlingen. There, the company is recruiting specialists to develop and manufacture components such as sensors, gearboxes and actuators, as well as design production equipment and manufacturing processes for future mass production. Tesla acquired a significant part of the site from the insolvent machinery manufacturer Manz in 2025. Together, the two locations point to a clear division of roles: Grünheide could support the training of Optimus with real-world factory data, while Reutlingen is being developed as a manufacturing hub for the humanoid robot itself.
