On Friday, Optimus’s engineering manager, the Tesla humanoid robots division, left the company on Friday. Milan Kovac announced his departure on X, insisting that he “will not change anything” about the plans of the company, which, in March, meant to build thousands of robots this year only.
Kovac insisted that he was leaving Tesla only to “spend more time with his family abroad”, adding that his “support for @elonmusk and the team is ironing”, saying speculation that his exit could have been invited to the political activity of Musk or to the recent public quarrel with Donald Trump. In his own tweet, Musk thanked Kovac for his “exceptional contribution to Tesla in the last decade”.
Bloomberg Reports that the chef of the Auto Pilot Ashok Elluswamy will take responsibility for Optimus, who is at a critical stage. In March, Musk said that the company could make “at least one legion of robots this year, then probably 10 legions next year”, which would mean about 5,000 robots by the end of this year, and 50,000 in 2026. To do this, it will have to overcome the recent restrictions of China on exports of rare earthly minerals, which are essential for the construction of robots.
