Tesla Optimus VP Milan Kovac Departs Company

Tesla Optimus VP Departs

Milan Kovac, the Vice President leading Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot program, has left the company, according to a Bloomberg report. This departure comes shortly after CEO Elon Musk announced ambitious production targets for the robot.

Musk recently stated Tesla aims to have thousands of Optimus robots working in its factories by the end of 2025. He further projected scaling production to millions of units annually.

We expect to scale Optimus up faster than any product, I think, in history, to get to millions of units per year as soon as possible.

Kovac's Tenure and New Leadership

Kovac contributed to Tesla for nearly a decade, initially as a top engineer on the Autopilot team. He transitioned to the Optimus project in 2022 and became its Vice President in late 2024.

Kovac previously described his role 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.

Ashok Elluswamy, Vice President of Tesla's AI software division, will now oversee the Optimus project, according to Bloomberg.

For more details, see the original Bloomberg report: Bloomberg News.

Learn more about Musk's statements on robotics: Business Insider.