Tesla’s vice president overseeing the Optimus humanoid robot program, Milan Kovac, is departing the company after nearly a decade, he announced Friday in a post on social media platform X.
Kovac, who has led the development of the Optimus robot since 2022, cited personal reasons for his decision. “I’ve been far away from home for too long, and will need to spend more time with family abroad,” he wrote. “This is the only reason—I have nothing but ironclad support for Elon [Musk] and Tesla.”
Over the past 9+ years, I’ve had the immense privilege to work with some of the most brilliant minds in AI & engineering. I’ve built friendships that will last a lifetime.
This week, I’ve had to make the most difficult decision of my life and will be moving out of my position.… pic.twitter.com/ENwYRDQkMO
— Milan Kovac (@_milankovac_) June 6, 2025
The news was first reported by Bloomberg. Tesla has not publicly commented on the leadership change.
Kovac previously served as a top engineer on Tesla’s Autopilot team before assuming leadership of the Optimus initiative, which aims to develop general-purpose humanoid robots. He was promoted to vice president in late 2024.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the company aims to deploy “thousands” of Optimus robots across its factories by the end of 2025 and has ambitions to scale production to “millions of units per year as soon as possible.”
Leadership of the Optimus project will now fall under Ashok Elluswamy, who heads Tesla’s artificial intelligence software division, according to Bloomberg.