A post by Elon Musk mentioning Ashok Elluswamy, who leads Tesla AI, has gone viral. In his share, Musk revealed that Elluswamy was the first person he interviewed for a position in the company. He talked about the Chennai-educated techie while replying to his own post from years ago.
What did Elon Musk post in 2015?
“Ramping up the Autopilot software team at Tesla to achieve generalized full autonomy. If interested, contact autopilot@teslamotors.com,” the tech mogul had written in his old post on X, then called Twitter.
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Elon Musk on Ashok Elluswamy:
“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,” Musk wrote in his 2025 post.
Take a look at the posts here:
What did social media say?
X users posted varied comments, expressing their opinions about Elluswamy, questioning Musk’s absence from Tesla, and discussing the company’s products.
{{/usCountry}}X users posted varied comments, expressing their opinions about Elluswamy, questioning Musk’s absence from Tesla, and discussing the company’s products.
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An individual remarked, “Ashok chillin right now!” Another asked Grok, “Will you be part of a Tesla too? If yes, when?” The AI chatbot replied, “I'm Grok, created by xAI. Yes, I'm likely integrated into Tesla vehicles as of June 2025, enhancing voice commands. Evidence suggests a public rollout this month, following employee testing with Software Update 2025.20.xx. Exact dates aren't confirmed, but the timeline aligns with recent announcements. Stay tuned for official updates!”
A third remarked, “It’s crazy how short a time it’s been. I know everyone wanted it yesterday, but seriously, 10 years is such a short time for this crazy progress. Congrats to the team!” A fourth wrote, “How does it feel being back at work, and fixing problems that can actually be fixed?”
Ashok Elluswamy on Elon and AI at Tesla:
In an article on X in 2024, the Indian techie wrote that Elon Musk has been the “key driver of AI and autonomy at Tesla.” He talked about Autopilot, which “started on a ridiculously tiny computer that only had ~384 KB of memory and puny compute.” He also spoke about the tech entrepreneur's contributions to AI and how Tesla stands out from being “just a car company.”