Milan Kovac, the head of Tesla’s ambitious Optimus robot project, has departed the company after a decade-long tenure. This is a major blow to Elon Musk’s plans for the company, which hypes up its robot and AI plans as its EV sales flounder globally.
Fortune reports that Milan Kovac, who has been leading Tesla’s Optimus robot project since its inception three years ago, is now leaving the company. His departure is expected to have major repercussions for Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar robot dreams. Kovac, who came to America on under the H-1B via program that Musk had a meltdown defending, was instrumental in driving the development of Optimus, which Musk has touted as part of Tesla’s future.
Kovac’s leadership has been credited with transforming the Optimus project from an exploratory prototype to a more stable platform. Under his guidance, the Optimus team made significant strides in 2023, improving the robot’s locomotion capabilities, enabling it to walk off-gantry without falls, and enhancing its speed and human-like movements.
Musk’s unwavering confidence in the project remains evident, as he has previously stated, “Tesla will win, I guarantee you that.” However, the loss of Kovac’s expertise and leadership at such a critical juncture raises questions about the future trajectory of the Optimus project and its ability to deliver on its ambitious goals.
Despite the hype, Optimus robots have consistently underwhelmed the market. As Breitbart News reported in 2022:
The robot was revealed at the beginning of Tesla’s 2022 AI Day presentation, in which Musk acknowledged that the company previously introduced the robot last year with “a guy in a suit,” but promised that the new demonstration would be more impressive.
Musk claims that the prototype robot that appeared on stage, walked briefly, and waved at the audience can do more than was shown at the event, but “the first time it operated without a tether was tonight on stage.”
In 2024, Tesla featured Optimus robots at its robotaxi event, initially impressing attendees with its ability to hold conversations with humans — until it was revealed they were controlled by humans behind the scenes. As Breitbart News reported:
At Tesla’s highly anticipated “We, Robot” event, held in conjunction with the reveal of its Cybercab robotaxi, the company showcased its Optimus humanoid robots which interacted with the crowd, serving drinks, playing games with guests, and even dancing. The robots’ ability to engage in conversation and respond to verbal and visual cues left many attendees impressed. However, it has come to light that the robots’ seemingly advanced capabilities were largely due to human assistance behind the scenes.
Attendee Robert Scoble, who initially posted about the robots’ impressive performance, later clarified that he had learned from an engineer that the robots were being “remote assisted” by humans. This revelation was further supported by Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, who noted in a report that the robots “relied on tele-ops (human intervention).”
Read more at Fortune here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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