Meet Ashok Elluswamy engineer, brain behind Elon Musk's Tesla's AI success, not from IIT, IIM; earned Bachelor's degree from..
Meet Ashok Elluswamy engineer, brain behind Elon Musk's Tesla's AI success, not from IIT, IIM; earned Bachelor's degree from..
Tesla head Elon Musk needs no introduction. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index 2025, Elon Musk is the richest person in the world. His total net worth is $335 B. An old post by Elon Musk about Ashok Elluswamy, the head of Tesla AI, has recently gone viral. On June 2, 2025, Musk went back to that time by re-posting his 2015 tweet with the message, 'Ramping up the Autopilot software team at Tesla to achieve generalized full autonomy. If interested, contact autopilot@teslamotors.com.'
In the post, Musk shared that Elluswamy was the very first person he interviewed when hiring for Tesla. Talking about the Indian-origin engineer Ashok Elluswamy, who was the first recruit of Tesla's Autopilot team, Musk said, 'This tweet 9 years ago was how I started the Autopilot, now AI, team at Tesla. Ashok, who now leads the team, was the first person I interviewed. Milan, who leads Optimus, also joined very early. Many of the key people in Tesla AI have been there from the beginning.'
Ashok Elluswamy is a San Francisco resident who serves as Vice President of AI at Tesla and directs the company's Autopilot software. Originally, he came to Tesla in 2014 and became the first engineer of the Autopilot/AI team. He has been leading AI software since 2019, guiding Tesla's initiatives in autonomous driving, neural networks, and real-time decision-making systems.
This tweet 9 years ago was how I started the Autopilot, now AI, team at Tesla.
Ashok, who now leads the team, was the first person I interviewed.
Milan, who leads Optimus, also joined very early.
Many of the key people in Tesla AI have been there from the beginning. https://t.co/yck84sSS0X
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2025
'Robotics engineer with broad experience from computer vision and perception through planning and control. Inspired to solve meaningful and challenging real-world problems using state-of-the-art technology! Eager to work hard and learn continuously,' reads his LinkedIn profile.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Ashok pursued Bachelor of Engineering, Electronics and Communication from the College of Engineering Guindy, Chennai between 2005 to 2009. Later, he pursued Master of Science-MS, Robotic Systems Development from Carnegie Mellon University. Before Tesla, he worked as a Software Engineer at WABCO Vehicle Control Systems. He worked as a research intern at Volkswagen Electronic Research.
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