Elon Musk expressed appreciation on Sunday, stating that “Without him and our remarkable team, we’d simply be another car company searching for an autonomy supplier that isn’t available.”…reports Asian Lite News
Lauding the Indian-origin engineer Ashok Elluswamy, who was the first recruit of Tesla’s Autopilot team, Elon Musk on Sunday expressed gratitude towards him, saying that “without him and our awesome team, we would just be another car company looking for an autonomy supplier that does not exist”.
This comes after Elluswamy, in his detailed note, said that Musk has been the key driver of AI and autonomy at Tesla.
“He has always pushed us to achieve great things, even when such ideas were seemingly impossible at the time,” it added.
Later, the tech billionaire quoted Elluswamy’s post on X and wrote, “Thanks Ashok! Ashok was the first person to join the Tesla AI/Autopilot team and ultimately rose to lead all AI/Autopilot software”.
“Btw, I never suggested that he say anything and I had no idea he wrote this until I saw it 10 minutes ago,” he added.
Elluswamy, in his note, shared an instance that goes back to 2014, when “autopilot started on a ridiculously tiny computer”.
“Back in 2014, Autopilot started on a ridiculously tiny computer that only had about 384 KB of memory and puny compute (didn’t even have native floating point arithmetic). He asked the engineering team to implement lane keeping, lane changing, longitudinal control for vehicles, curvature, etc,” the engineer wrote.
“Many, even in the team, thought that the request was crazy. Nonetheless, he never gave up and pushed the team to achieve this very difficult goal. In 2015, beyond all odds, Tesla shipped the world’s first Autopilot system. The second closest such product only came to market many years later,” he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated on Saturday that India’s talented youth and its stable democracy offer a safe business environment for all partners.
PM Modi said this in reply to billionaire Elon Musk, who on Friday had congratulated the Prime Minister on his re-election for a record third term. Musk informed that his companies are looking to invest in India soon.
“Appreciate your greetings @elonmusk,” PM Modi said.
“The talented Indian youth, our demography, predictable policies, and stable democratic polity will continue to provide the business environment for all our partners,” PM Modi added.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO was expected to visit India on April 21 and 22 and also meet PM Modi.
However, he later postponed it citing “very heavy Tesla obligations”.
Musk later said he looks forward to coming to India later this year.
Musk met PM Modi in June 2023 in the US. The tech billionaire expressed confidence that Tesla would enter the Indian market soon, along with Starlink, the satellite internet service.
Tesla is also expected to set up its manufacturing unit in India and make large-scale investments.
The carmaker had, in 2023, asked the Indian government to make duty cuts to import its vehicles into the country.
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