In a recent event Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla praised an Indian-origin engineer Ashok Elluswamy. Ashok was the first person who was hired for Tesla’s autopilot team. The whole scene rolled out when Ashok posted an article on X and shared how everything started in 2015. He wrote, “In 2015, beyond all odds, Tesla shipped the world's first Autopilot system. The second closest such product only came to market many years later.” And how Elon Musk “has been the key driver of AI and autonomy at Tesla.”

Ashok started his post from the start and wrote, “Back in 2014, Autopilot started on a ridiculously tiny computer that only had ~384 KB of memory and puny computer (didn't even have native floating point arithmetic). 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.” 

He added, “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.”

And he completed the article by saying, “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. Elon's technical intuition to make these important decisions way before others see it is unmatched. If not for Elon's ambition, Tesla might have dwindled to become just another car company.”

Ashok shared this article on 9th of June and then Elon Musk find the post and praised the dedication and said, “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 autonomy 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 mins ago!” 

Since it was shared the post has got more than 1 crore views and still counting and thousands of likes. People in the comments section shared their reactions to the post. 

User’s reaction to the post:

“He is another hero of Tesla.”

“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.”

“Tesla will definitely succeed.

Because a lot of employees like Ashok are with Elon.”

“The roads will be a safer place thanks to Ashok and his dedication to the mission.”

“Big contribution to changing the world ASHOK!”