Milan Kovac, Head Of Tesla Optimus Program, Departs

On Friday, June 6, 2025, Milan Kovac, the pinnacle of engineering for the Optimus humanoid group at Tesla, introduced he was leaving to spend extra time along 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 submit that stated the choice to go away Tesla was “essentially the most troublesome resolution” of his life. He went on to say, “My assist for @elonmusk and the group is ironclad. I’ve received whole religion in them pushing Optimus to the subsequent degree, along with the broader Tesla AI / engineering & manufacturing groups. My departure now is not going to change a factor.”

Musk responded in form with a submit of his personal through which he stated, “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 a indication that Kovac’s departure was a hasty one, and certainly the corporate stated Ashok Elluswamy, the pinnacle of the Tesla Autopilot group, 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 beneath a bushel, proclaims that Optimus might be “the largest product ever of any form.” That’s proper, people. For the low, low value of solely $30,000 or so, you may have a private assistant that may fold your shirts, stroll your canine, and clear up the breakfast dishes. Some readers might keep in mind when self-driving automobiles have been the largest factor since sliced bread, or when the second era 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 vary the course of historical past, the electrical Semi that might out-pull any truck ever made, and the self-driving Mannequin S that would depart 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 growth” Tesla has. “The one issues that matter in the long run are autonomy and Optimus,” Musk advised CNBC final month.

In truth, he’s betting the whole firm on Optimus and autonomy and buyers are lapping it up. Musk could be 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 very fact, “Vital be aware: Optimus can’t but do that autonomously, however actually will be capable of do that absolutely 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 information will not be 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 stated, “And Elon clarified that Optimus shouldn’t be autonomous on this video. So it’s principally one other staged video, identical 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 probably gained’t be actual for a few years to come back.” I used to be pondering exactly the identical factor myself. A few of it’s possible you’ll be as nicely.

Zach wrote, “The individual, self-described as ‘common man who loves autonomous autos,’ sees FSD as being massively overhyped by way of staged movies for years, and sees Tesla doing the identical with Optimus. A minimum of it was clarified (considerably), however the unique tweet made it appear 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 “received numerous consideration final October when it used Optimus prototypes to have a tendency bar and work together with friends 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 swap from the thoughts of Musk.

Optimus And Autonomy

What’s attention-grabbing 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 reality, they gained’t be driverless automobiles. A bunch of extremely educated flunkies will see the whole lot 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 screens, however they can not management the automobiles instantly. All they’ll do is make solutions. Waymo has robotaxis, a few of them in Austin. Tesla has pretend robotaxis. Will probably be attention-grabbing 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 approach forward of  Tesla in relation to self-driving automobiles.

Now that the pinnacle of the autonomous driving group is taking up the Optimus program, we’re left to wonder if autonomy shall 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 most likely 10 legions subsequent 12 months,” which might imply round 5,000 robots by the tip of this 12 months, and 50,000 in 2026. However there’s a downside. With the intention to obtain that objective, Tesla “should overcome China’s current restrictions on exports of uncommon earth minerals and magnets, that are important for the robots’ development,” The Verge says.

Gee, Mister Wizard!

What can be pleasant can be if the Unimaginable Mister Musk truly introduced a few of his Buck Rogers goals to fruition and received 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 right now is that electrical automotive gross sales in Germany in Might have been up strongly, whereas gross sales of Tesla vehicles have been down sharply for the fifth straight month. That’s the place buyers must be centered, 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 behind 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 a beautiful world that shall be. What an excellent time to be free.