Meet Indian-origin man whom Elon Musk credits for Tesla’s AI success, his role is...

Elon Musk’s Tesla might not start manufacturing in India, but Indians have been prominent in playing big roles in the big tech companies in the US’ Silicon Valley. Elon Musk’s post on X social media platform is an example of how Indians have become a driving force behind the success of these tech companies and their most advanced products. Nine years ago, Elon Musk called on experienced developers to build Tesla’s Autopilot team. Reminiscing those days after nine years, Elon took to X on June 2, Monday, to reshare his tweet that he posted in 2015. The post read, “Ramping up the Autopilot software team at Tesla to achieve generalized full autonomy. If interested, contact autopilot@teslamotors.com.”   

Along with this post, he added a fresh post that read, “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.” Through this note he acknowledged the contributions of Ashok Elluswamy who was one of the earliest members in his AI team.  

Who is Ashok Elluswamy? 

Ashok Elluswamy is an Indian origin living in San Francisco who is currently the Vice President of AI at Tesla, and at the helm of the tech company’s Autopilot software. He was the first one to join Tesla’s Autopilot software, its AI team in 2014, as an engineer. Five years after joining the company, Ashok became the head of its AI software division in 2019 and since then has been overseeing Tesla’s innovations like self-driving, neural networks, and real-time decision-making systems. 

Talking about his educational qualifications, Ashok has earned a Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication from the College of Engineering, Guindy, in Chennai and a Master degree in Robotic Systems Development from Carnegie Mellon University. However, before Tesla, he was a Software Engineer at WABCO Vehicle Control Systems, a US-based provider of electronic braking, stability, suspension and transmission automation systems for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. He did his internship at Volkswagen’s Electronic Research Lab, which gave him experience of several driving projects.