Ashok Elluswamy on automation
From Ashok Elluswamy: Building Foundational Models for Robotics at Tesla · · Matroid
“The vehicles are like a low-cost, scalable solution to transport and humanoid robots are a low-cost, scalable solution to automate like all physical work.”
On , Ashok Elluswamy, Executive Officer at Tesla, Inc., spoke about automation during Ashok Elluswamy: Building Foundational Models for Robotics at Tesla on Matroid.
About Ashok Elluswamy
Ashok Elluswamy, Vice President of AI at Tesla, has described the company’s mission as “producing amazing abundance for the entire world” through autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots. In early 2026, he stated that Tesla’s robotaxi service is operating in Austin, Texas, with no safety driver, and that the company aims to scale the service to the entire fleet. Elluswamy said that Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system is an end-to-end neural network that uses only cameras and no radar, lidar, or HD maps, and that the same foundational model is being adapted for the Optimus humanoid robot. He predicted that by 2035 all cars manufactured will be self-driving and that humanoid robots will be able to interact in natural language. Elluswamy has emphasized that Tesla’s approach relies on large-scale data and compute, including the custom Dojo training hardware, to achieve safety and smooth driving. He stated that the company’s end-to-end system can be probed for reasoning traces and 3D understanding, and that it has enabled features such as emergency braking for crossing vehicles. Elluswamy described Tesla as “all in on robotics” and said the company is focused on producing intelligent robots for physical work, with the goal of creating a car that “doesn’t need to crash ever.”