Tesla‘s Optimus Robotics Lead Milan Kovac Departs Amid Ambitious Robot Development Push
特斯拉擎天柱机器人业务负责人米兰・科瓦奇离职 正值雄心勃勃的机器人开发推进之际
Milan Kovac, Tesla’s vice president of Optimus robotics, announced his departure from the company on Friday via a post on X. Kovac, who joined Tesla in 2016 and previously led Autopilot software engineering, expressed gratitude to CEO Elon Musk for a decade of mentorship, highlighting lessons in filtering signal from noise, resilience, and engineering fundamentals. “Tesla will win, I guarantee you that,” he added, affirming confidence in the company’s trajectory.
特斯拉擎天柱机器人业务副总裁米兰・科瓦奇（Milan Kovac）周五在社交媒体平台 X 上宣布离职。科瓦奇于 2016 年加入特斯拉，此前曾领导自动驾驶软件工程项目，他在帖子中向首席执行官埃隆・马斯克（Elon Musk）表达了十年间的感激之情，特别提到从马斯克身上学到了 “从噪音中辨别有效信息” 的能力、“硬核韧性” 以及工程学的基本原理。他补充道：“我保证，特斯拉会赢。” 字里行间流露出对公司发展轨迹的坚定信心。
Tesla’s Optimus project, aimed at creating a bipedal, intelligent robot for tasks ranging from factory work to childcare, remains a cornerstone of its future ambitions. In its Q1 shareholder deck, the company reaffirmed plans to begin Optimus production on its Fremont pilot line in 2025, with broader deployment across factories envisioned for the bots. At the 2024 annual shareholder meeting, Musk—describing himself as “pathologically optimistic”—speculated that humanoid robots could propel Tesla’s market cap to $25 trillion, though he did not specify a timeline.
特斯拉的擎天柱（Optimus）项目旨在打造一款双足智能机器人，使其能够胜任从工厂作业到育儿等多种任务，该项目仍是特斯拉未来雄心的核心。在第一季度的股东报告中，公司重申了 2025 年在弗里蒙特试点生产线启动擎天柱生产的计划，并设想将这类机器人更广泛地部署到各个工厂。在 2024 年年度股东大会上，马斯克称自己 “乐观得有些病态”，并推测人形机器人可能在未来某个未明确的时间点将特斯拉的市值推高至 25 万亿美元。
Kovac’s departure comes as Tesla navigates competition from robotics firms like Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, and Apptronik. While he rose to lead the Optimus unit in 2022, Tesla has not yet named a successor. Musk publicly thanked Kovac for his “outstanding contributions,” but the company did not comment further on the transition.
科瓦奇离职之际，特斯拉正与波士顿动力（Boston Dynamics）、敏捷机器人（Agility Robotics）和 Apptronik 等机器人公司展开竞争。尽管科瓦奇于 2022 年升任擎天柱部门负责人，但特斯拉尚未公布其继任者。马斯克公开感谢科瓦奇做出的 “杰出贡献”，但公司未就这一人事变动进一步置评。
