Tesla AI VP Milan Kovac Resigns After 9 Years Leading FSD and Optimus Projects

https://gearmusk.com/2025/06/07/tesla-ai-vp-milan-kovac-resigns/

74•loog5566•8mo ago

Comments

peepeepoopoo132•8mo ago

The standard 80 hour weeks at Musk's companies are incompatible with human life. It's very, very disappointing to see Musk publicly complain about falling birth rates but fail to recognize the connection between overtaxed employees and poor fertility.

Edit: He said he's resigning because he's had to spend too much time away from family, implying that the work-life balance at Tesla has been very bad.

troupo•8mo ago

He believes that he also works 80 hours a week.

peepeepoopoo132•8mo ago

And look what it's done to him. He's a substance addict who can barely form coherent sentences when he speaks. People aren't designed to work like that.

dyauspitr•8mo ago

Musk thinks he works 80 hr weeks.

blitzar•8mo ago

He counts getting high and browsing the internet as work.

sshine•8mo ago

Being the best Diablo player in the world is hard work.

fisherjeff•8mo ago

Easily true if you include all the content he is constantly producing for X

lawn•8mo ago

He also believes that he's a "world class Diablo player", which is of course bullshit.

rsynnott•8mo ago

I mean, this is a bit like Thatcher pretending to only sleep four hours a day; it sounds deeply impressive to stupid people, but would in fact be enormously detrimental to their ability to function properly. I would assume he’s just lying about this, or else including his tweeting habit in ‘work’.

khazhoux•8mo ago

I work the longest hours of anyone I know (friends implore me to stop). I'm one of the first cars in the garage, one of the last ones out. Start at 8, home at 8, 15 minute lunch, 2 hours at night with overseas team. A few hours cram-work Sunday night. 3-5 hours of sleep M-F (5.5 hours is a rare luxury). These numbers are accurate and consistent every week for last 12 months.

It's still not 80 hours a week.

So I get a bit miffed when people cry "Wah, we all work 80-hour weeks!" No, I don't think so.

N7lo4nl34akaoSN•8mo ago

It's easier if you don't have days off.

BoorishBears•8mo ago

You typically don't have a concept of weekend/not-weekend when you're working 80+ hours.

I've done periods of what I call "sleep/work", where I wake up with my laptop next to my head, immediately start working, and work all day: definitely not leaving my house and usually only even leaving the room to grab deliveries or use the restroom. I'd work until I literally couldn't stay awake, with the laptop next to my head and ready for when I wake up to continue. So literally for entire days I'll have done nothing but sleep and work, with even eating being done while working.

You can certainly do it, but it's an (unproductive) expression of mental illness that will additionally worsen every facet of your existence in short order. Elon's definitely mentally ill too: either for doing it regularly or being enough of a sociopath to claim that others should do it on his behalf.

khazhoux•8mo ago

Sure, I believe that, but my real point is: for how long did you sustain that sleep/work mode? Did you go a year working 80+ hours, every single week?

Because what I see is people do one ultra-crunch week, and then shout "OMG I work 80-hour weeks!" as if it was the normal occurrence, when the reality is they're working ~50hrs on average.

BoorishBears•8mo ago

6 or so weeks of working every waking hour before settling into an average of 12 hours a day for the last 7 months.

Again, people do it but it's not useful. Once you back yourself into a corner, all you can think about is moving one foot in front of the other no matter how inefficent the path you're taking is.

From there the only thing that will stop you is some outside factor, because you no longer have the clarity or discipline it takes to stop.

If you're lucky some great windfall from all the inefficient work you're doing will be that outside factor, but most likely the outside factor will be your health failing, or interpersonal relationships failing, or everything failing anyways because you aren't even at 50% effectiveness to make up for the 2x time you're putting in.

lipowitz•8mo ago

Maybe you should stop focusing on winning the hours worked competition and focus on finding a new job.

blitzar•8mo ago

> Start at 8.

Nice of you to finally join us there, buddy. Thought you weren't coming in today.

khazhoux•8mo ago

Ha!!

solardev•8mo ago

Why?

kevinventullo•8mo ago

I wouldn’t overthink it. People like Musk do not believe in truth.

aaomidi•8mo ago

He’s like the opposite of Ford.

Hey, Musk, you’re probably going to read this thread. Have you considered leaving a positive legacy behind yourself? Do something like Ford and redefine the working time to the benefit of people?

sexy_seedbox•8mo ago

Until we prioritize quality (and good amount sleep for everyone) over quantity, not much is going to change.

gundmc•8mo ago

Interesting timing with the supposed Robotaxi launch later this month

Zigurd•8mo ago

Tesla's SEC filings claim they have $37 billion in liquid assets. There's no excuse for under resourcing autonomy development at Tesla. Not much to do about that now. They had to have gotten serious about it three years ago or longer.

Elon can only blame himself. He believes he can will anything into existence. Some investors seem to share that belief. I'd say they're going to learn differently, but this is not the first failure of this type. Elon blurted out a goal without a plan in place.

kkkk1111•8mo ago

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Tesla AI VP Milan Kovac Resigns After 9 Years Leading FSD and Optimus Projects

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