Tesla’s head of the Optimus humanoid robot program, Milan Kovac, is out. Bloomberg reports Kovac is leaving after nearly a decade at Tesla.
Kovac joined the Optimus program in 2022 and became VP in late 2024. He previously worked as a lead engineer on Tesla’s Autopilot team.
Elon Musk recently said Tesla plans to have “thousands” of Optimus robots running in its factories by the end of 2025, aiming for “millions of units per year” soon after. 
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s AI software VP, will take over the Optimus project, Bloomberg adds.
Milan Kovac on LinkedIn:
“I’m driving the Optimus program (Tesla’s humanoid robot) & all its engineering teams.”
“Separately, I’m also driving the engineering teams responsible for all the software foundations & infrastructure common between Optimus and Autopilot.”
