Elon Musk recently shared a nostalgic post on X (formerly Twitter) highlighting Ashok Elluswamy, the Indian-origin, Chennai-educated techie who now leads Tesla’s AI team. Musk revealed that Elluswamy was the very first person he interviewed when building Tesla’s Autopilot software team nearly a decade ago.

Back in 2015, Musk had tweeted: “Ramping up the Autopilot software team at Tesla to achieve generalized full autonomy. If interested, contact autopilot@teslamotors.com.” This call to talent marked the start of Tesla’s AI journey.

In his 2025 post, Musk reflected: “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.”

Social media reactions ranged from admiration for Elluswamy’s role to curiosity about Tesla’s future, especially about Musk’s current involvement. One user jokingly remarked, “Ashok chillin right now!” while another asked the AI chatbot Grok if it would be integrated into Tesla cars soon. Grok confirmed a likely rollout in June 2025, improving voice command features.

In a 2024 article on X, Elluswamy credited Musk as the “key driver of AI and autonomy at Tesla,” highlighting Tesla’s unique AI evolution from its modest beginnings on a tiny computer with just 384 KB of memory to its current advancements.

Tesla’s AI story, fueled by passionate leaders like Elluswamy, continues to captivate tech enthusiasts worldwide.