Tesla just lost the head of its robotics division

The head of engineering for Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot division, left the company on Friday. Milan Kovac announced his departure on X, insisting that it “will not change a thing” about the company’s plans, which, as of March, meant building thousands of robots this year alone.

Kovac insisted that he was leaving Tesla only to “spend more time with family abroad,” adding that his “support for @elonmusk and the team is ironclad,” heading off speculation that his exit might have been prompted by Musk’s political activity or recent public squabble with Donald Trump. In his own tweet, Musk thanked Kovac for his “outstanding contribution to Tesla over the past decade.”

Musk has called the humanoid Optimus robots Tesla’s “most important product development,” and has repeatedly leaned on the division to generate hype as EV sales slow and the company’s stock price tumbles. “The only things that matter in the long term are autonomy and Optimus,” Musk told CNBC in May, referring to the company’s separate plans for self-driving cars, set to be deployed in a “robotaxi” service in Austin this month.

Bloomberg reports that Autopilot chief Ashok Elluswamy will take over responsibility for Optimus, which is at a critical stage. In March Musk claimed the company could make “at least one legion of robots this year and then probably 10 legions next year,” which would mean around 5,000 robots by the end of this year, and 50,000 in 2026. To do so, it will have to overcome China’s recent restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals and magnets, which are essential for the robots’ construction.