'Without him...': Elon Musk praises Indian-origin Tesla director Ashok Elluswamy. 5 points

Elon Musk also thanked Ashok Elluswamy for his note on X in which he declared that the Tesla boss was 'critical' for the company's success in AI. (Image credit: Reuters, LinkedIn)

Elon Musk on Sunday praised the director of AI/autopilot software at Tesla, Ashok Elluswamy, for his contribution to the growth of the electric car company. Responding to a note Elluswamy wrote on X, Musk said that without him and their "awesome" team, Tesla would just be "another car company".

"Ashok was the first person to join the Tesla AI/Autopilot team and ultimately rose to lead all AI/Autopilot software," the tech billionaire wrote on X. "Without him and our awesome team, we would just be another car company looking for an autonomy supplier that doesn’t exist."

Musk also thanked Elluswamy for his note in which he declared that the Tesla boss was "critical" for the company's success in AI.

"If not for Elon's ambition, Tesla might have dwindled to become just another car company. In the future, fully autonomous cars and useful household robots will be common place and the world will think that this was how it was always supposed to be. Until then, we need Elon Musk to push the frontier, because he sees it already," Elluswamy wrote.

Intrigued? Here are five more things to know about this Indian-origin Tesla director:

1.) Ashok Elluswamy was hired after Musk put out a tweet looking for candidates for the autopilot team. He has been associated with the company for 10 years. “Ashok was the first person recruited from my tweet saying that Tesla is starting an Autopilot team!” Musk said on December 29, in response to a snippet shared on Twitter from one of his interviews.

2.) The Tesla employee is a robotics engineer with experience in computer vision and perception through planning and control, according to his LinkedIn profile.

3.) He earned his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Communication from the College of Engineering, Guindy in Chennai.

4.) He studied robotics systems development at the Carnegie Mellon University in the US.

5.) Before Tesla, he was associated with the WABCO Vehicle Control Systems and Volkswagen.