Los Angeles, showcased its humanoid Optimus robots in an attempt to spark excitement for its upcoming products. However, behind the flash and spectacle, it became clear that the machines were not as autonomous as they appeared,

Tesla used humans to remotely control some capabilities of its Optimus robot prototypes at a recent event, according to people familiar with the matter.

One of the highlights of Tesla’s “We, Robot” event wasn’t the self-driving cars but the allegedly autonomous robots. Tesla’s Optimus bot isn’t new, but this is the first event where actual robots joined the stage—and the crowd—rather than a person in a robot costume. Or was it?