DailyPost 2815
MUSK – ASHOK: ON AN AUTOPILOT
If Musk and Ashok were not on autopilot, they would not have created the autopilot, which Tesla boasts of today. As Elon Musk says his company would have become another car manufacturer. People who drive the world, who break the glass ceiling, who make technology stretch beyond imagination are the people who are on autopilot. They barely need anybody to drive them, they are on their own, with energy surpassing every possible limit. If a tech wizard on autopilot gets his first autopilot project employee, who is self-driven to create and make tech history happen, rest is bound to become history and it did.
What is Tesla autopilot? “Autopilot is a suite of advanced driver assistance features that are intended to make driving safer and less stressful.” Suffice to say none of these features make Tesla Model 3 fully autonomous or have been created with an intention to replace the driver. What is fascinating is that today, Tesla has reached a level of tech superiority that autopilot features come standard with all new Tesla vehicles. So now let’s come back to the story of Ashok Elluswamy and Elon Musk, which made it happen. Ashok has taken the tech world by storm as he is now known as the Indian-origin techie who turned Tesla’s Autopilot a reality.
Elon Musk’s recent praise of this techie is making him a part of the tech folklore. Elluswamy joined Tesla based on Tweet looking for candidates for Tesla’s Autopilot team. It has been a decade-long journey of the Indian born robotics engineer with Tesla, rising to lead all AI/Autopilot software. Ashok had taken to X shedding light on Musk’s significant influence and encouragement in advancing AI and autonomous driving at Tesla. It was praise for Musk’s leadership and encouragement but for which the EV maker wouldn’t have reached the heights it did. He was the first Autopilot hire.
Challenges were much more than a handful. The compute was extremely limited. There was scepticism on goals like lane-keeping, lane changing and vehicle control; it was only Musk’s relentless drive that pushed them to achieve these milestones. It was 2016 that Tesla decided to develop computer vision capabilities in-house which the team achieved in 11 months, an out of the world feat. This would normally take a decade. Musk reshared Elluswamy’s post, and also expressed his gratitude and admiration. Musk acknowledged the feat with Ashok achieved for Tesla, for where Tesla stands today. “Without him and our awesome team, we would just be another car company looking for an autonomous supplier that does not exist.”
TEAM WITHOUT BARRIERS AND BREAKING TECH BARRIERS HAS BECOME THE HALLMARK OF MUSK’S TECH REVOLUTION.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening