Elon Musk lauds Indian-origin engineer Ashok Elluswamy. Who is he?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Sunday showered praise on Indian-origin engineer Ashok Elluswamy, the first person hired for Tesla's autopilot team.

His reaction came after Elluswamy took to social media platform X to share how Musk “has been the key driver of AI and autonomy at Tesla”. The engineer also added that Musk pushes the team to “achieve great things”.

Elluswamy started his post by remembering how, in 2014, “Autopilot started on a ridiculously tiny computer that only had ~384 KB of memory and puny compute.” He further stated, “He asked the engineering team to implement lane keeping, lane changing, longitudinal control for vehicles, curvature, etc. Many, even in the team, thought that the request was crazy. Nonetheless, he never gave up and pushed the team to achieve this very difficult goal.”

“In 2016, Tesla started doing all of the computer vision required for Autopilot in-house instead of depending on external vendors. Many people thought it was insane to bet the product on developing the vision system from scratch within a few months, which had taken other companies a decade or more. Yet, we achieved this target within eleven months,” he said while elaborating how Musk always pushed for strong AI software and powerful hardware.

“I could go on, but plainly, Elon is critical for Tesla's success in AI. It is his combination of deep technical understanding, insane perseverance and relentless hard work that have positioned Tesla to be a leader in real-world AI,” he said, crediting the CEO for Tesla’s success.

Later, Musk shared the post and praised Elluswamy. He wrote, “Thanks Ashok! Ashok was the first person to join the Tesla AI/Autopilot team and ultimately rose to lead all AI/Autopilot software. Without him and our awesome team, we would just be another car company looking for an autonomous supplier that doesn't exist. Btw, I never suggested that he say anything, and I had no idea he wrote this until I saw it 10 minutes ago!”

Musk shared this post on June 9 and it has gained more than 11 million views since then. Many people also shared their reactions. An individual wrote, “You guys are doing incredible work.” Another stated, “Elon, thank you for all that you are doing with Tesla. Not only will automation be a great boom to the economy, it'll bring independence to many people who are elderly and can no longer drive.”