June 9 news, according to multiple media reports, on Friday (June 6), local time, Milan Kovac, head of Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot project, announced that he would leave the company. Ashok Elliswamy, who currently leads Tesla’s autonomous driving team, will take over Kovac’s position.
It is reported that Kovac became the head of the "Optimus Prime" project in 2022. During his tenure, the project made significant progress. Since its debut in 2022, Optimus Prime has attracted global attention with its innovative design concepts and potential application value. As an important layout of Tesla in the fields of artificial intelligence and robots, it carries Tesla's many ideas for future technological development.
Kovage posted on the X platform that "I had to make the hardest decision of my life, and I will leave my position. I have been away from home for too long and need to spend more time with my family abroad." He said that this is "the only reason, it has nothing to do with anything else". His support for Tesla founder Musk and his team is "rock-solid". His departure will not change anything.
Musk previously said that by the end of this year, thousands of Optimus Prime robots are expected to work in Tesla's own factory. The change of project leaders is just around the stage of mass production sprint, which has attracted the industry's attention to Tesla's robot strategy.
