Milan Kovac, Head Of Tesla Optimus Program, Departs

On Friday, June 6, 2025, Milan Kovac, the top of engineering for the Optimus humanoid workforce at Tesla, introduced he was leaving to spend extra time together with his household. That’s the information. Let the hypothesis start!

Many observers initially suspected a rupture between Kovac and Musk brought on by Elon’s more and more intense political machinations. However he introduced his departure on Musk’s private anti-social media channel in a publish that mentioned the choice to go away Tesla was “essentially the most tough determination” of his life. He went on to say, “My assist for @elonmusk and the workforce is ironclad. I’ve bought whole religion in them pushing Optimus to the subsequent stage, along with the broader Tesla AI / engineering & manufacturing groups. My departure now won’t change a factor.”

Musk responded in type with a publish of his personal by which he mentioned, “Milan, thanks in your excellent contribution to Tesla over the previous decade. It was an honor working with you. Benefit from the time with household.” There isn’t any indication that Kovac’s departure was a hasty one, and certainly the corporate mentioned Ashok Elluswamy, the top of the Tesla Autopilot workforce, will take over accountability for Optimus, an unnamed individual advised Bloomberg.

Tesla Bets On Optimus

Musk, who has by no means been accused of hiding his mild underneath a bushel, proclaims that Optimus might be “the most important product ever of any type.” That’s proper, of us. For the low, low worth of solely $30,000 or so, you possibly can have a private assistant that may fold your shirts, stroll your canine, and clear up the breakfast dishes. Some readers might bear in mind when self-driving automobiles have been the most important factor since sliced bread, or when the second technology Tesla Roadster was going to bend the legal guidelines of physics by cornering at 2Ge utilizing onboard booster rockets.

Then there was the photo voltaic roof that was going to alter the course of historical past, the electrical Semi that will out-pull any truck ever made, and the self-driving Mannequin S that would go away Los Angeles and journey to NYC with out help from any human hand. Musk now says Optimus — named after a personality in a cartoon film — is the “most vital product improvement” Tesla has. “The one issues that matter in the long run are autonomy and Optimus,” Musk advised CNBC final month.

In actual fact, he’s betting the complete firm on Optimus and autonomy and traders are lapping it up. Musk often is the best pitchman since Ron Popeil and PT Barnum, who famously noticed “There’s a sucker born each minute.”

A 12 months in the past, Musk posted a video of an Optimus robotic folding a shirt. The web went loopy. Even our personal Zachary Shahan was impressed, till Musk clarified after the actual fact, “Necessary be aware: Optimus can’t but do that autonomously, however actually will be capable of do that totally autonomously and in an arbitrary surroundings (gained’t require a set desk with field that has just one shirt).” As they are saying within the authorized enterprise, “If the details should not in your aspect, baffle ’em with bullshit.”

All Is Not Fairly As It Appears

That’s precisely what some folks suppose Elon and Tesla are doing with Optimus. After the miracle of the folding shirt, Zachary reposted a remark from a reader that mentioned, “And Elon clarified that Optimus will not be autonomous on this video. So it’s mainly one other staged video, similar to the 2016 FSD video. Elon is doing the identical factor with Optimus that he did with FSD — put out staged movies to hype one thing that doubtless gained’t be actual for a few years to return.” I used to be pondering exactly the identical factor myself. A few of you might be as effectively.

Zach wrote, “The individual, self-described as ‘common man who loves autonomous autos,’ sees FSD as being massively overhyped through staged movies for years, and sees Tesla doing the identical with Optimus. No less than it was clarified (considerably), however the authentic tweet made it seem to be the robotic was folding garments autonomously, however even the followup tweet signifies that the robotic will be capable of do that autonomously, sometime.”

Bloomberg experiences that Tesla “bought plenty of consideration final October when it used Optimus prototypes to have a tendency bar and work together with visitors at a flashy occasion within the Los Angeles space to generate investor enthusiasm for upcoming merchandise.” It was solely later the corporate revealed that people have been used to remotely management some capabilities of the robots. Extra bait and change from the thoughts of Musk.

Optimus And Autonomy

What’s fascinating is that tomorrow, June 10, Tesla is meant to start robotaxi service in Austin, Texas. The general public will see a small fleet of Tesla Mannequin Ys on the streets of the town and suppose, “Hey, look. A driverless automotive! How cool is that?” However in actual fact, they gained’t be driverless automobiles. A bunch of extremely skilled flunkies will see all the things the automobiles’ cameras see on screens in a management room someplace and can be capable of management the automobiles remotely.

The reality is that Waymo Robotaxis truly drive themselves. There are human displays, however they can’t management the automobiles instantly. All they’ll do is make options. Waymo has robotaxis, a few of them in Austin. Tesla has faux robotaxis. It will likely be fascinating to see how the general public charges the Tesla service in comparison with Waymo’s, however regardless of the way you slice it, Waymo is manner forward of  Tesla on the subject of self-driving automobiles.

Now that the top of the autonomous driving workforce is taking on the Optimus program, we’re left to wonder if autonomy will likely be allowed to float and not using a rudder for some time, simply the best way the Supercharger program did after Musk fired its chief.

The Verge experiences that in March, Musk claimed the corporate might make “a minimum of one legion of robots this 12 months after which in all probability 10 legions subsequent 12 months,” which might imply round 5,000 robots by the top of this 12 months, and 50,000 in 2026. However there’s a drawback. As a way to obtain that aim, Tesla “should overcome China’s latest restrictions on exports of uncommon earth minerals and magnets, that are important for the robots’ building,” The Verge says.

Gee, Mister Wizard!

What could be pleasant could be if the Unbelievable Mister Musk truly introduced a few of his Buck Rogers goals to fruition and bought them into {the marketplace} as an alternative of spinning truckloads of hype. Within the meantime, he’s saying little or no about his core enterprise — manufacturing and promoting electrical automobiles. The information at this time is that electrical automotive gross sales in Germany in Could have been up strongly, whereas gross sales of Tesla vehicles have been down sharply for the fifth straight month. That’s the place traders ought to be targeted, not on extra pie within the sky blandishments from one of many best hucksters of all time.

BTW, in case you have been questioning, this story was not written by an Optimus robotic, though Zachary and Scott could also be questioning at the back of their minds why CleanTechnica wants all these extremely paid writers. Sooner or later, all our tales could also be written by robots and browse by robots. What an exquisite world that will likely be. What an excellent time to be free.