an Indian American who took over the top designation. Yes, Indian-origin engineer Ashok Elluswamy was the company’s first hire for the autopilot team.
Responding to a video where he was interviewed, Musk tweeted, “Ashok was the first person recruited from my tweet saying that Tesla is starting an Autopilot team!”. He discussed in the video about Elluswamy, appreciating his expertise in technology and implying that the latter receives little recognition but is actually the leader of the autopilot engineering team.
Musk appreciated his Tesla Autopilot AI team and credited them with saying some of the smartest brains. He added, “Ashoka is actually the head of autopilot engineering. Andrej is director of AI; People often give me too much credit and give Andrej too much credit. The Tesla Autopilot AI team is extremely talented. Some of the smartest people in the world”.
Elluswamy formerly worked at Volkswagen Electronic Research Lab and WABCO Vehicle Control System, before joining Tesla. Ashok’s LinkedIn profile biography states that he is a “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”.
Elluswamy graduated from the College of Engineering Guindy in Chennai with a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering. Thereafter, Elluswamy graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a master’s degree in Robotics System Development. Musk, the richest man in the world, took to Twitter last December to announce that his business was searching for “hardcore AI engineers who care about solving problems that directly affect people’s lives in a major way.”
