Tesla Optimus in Shambles as Boston Dynamics Hires Fleeing Lead

https://electrek.co/2026/01/16/hyundais-boston-dynamics-scoops-up-teslas-former-optimus-head-milan-kovac/

I can see why AI5 might look like a-15, but the URL slug on the page he shows is clearly ai5. Weird to podcast about something and not bother to know what you're talking about. All that said, Tesla cannot collapse soon enough!

Good

Yes, and takes down the whole house of cards that Leon has built around it.

I am confused? Boston Dynamics hired someone that can't even do what they already have done?

He could be very good at his job, but might be held back by Musk's timeline, vision, and insanity

If the Optimus robot is so good, why don't they have an army of them building the cars?

May be merely a strategic hire

Of course don't forget that for around 2% of what he spent on buying Twitter, he could have bought Boston Dynamics outright in 2021 before they were acquired by Hyundai.

Exactly. Constantly changing requirements from above could really frustrate a project lead. For example the comically low price tag combined with an ever expanding feature set.

Fleeing or was offered more

Same reason why they ditch humans for car building robots. Human form is inefficient for most parts of car manufacturing.

He needed twitter to make sure trump got elected because he had to do something about the government that was investigating all his other scams

Bro you think this is1880 and a single person is going to bring revolutionary tech to the world by themselves?

They hired the guy in the body suit doing the robot dance.

As someone that was in Tesla. I took less money to leave 😂. So I wouldn’t be surprised if they just left regardless.

I got offered a role for a ton of money working pretty much next to Elon. Much higher pay but much less title. Then all of this happened for the election. I thought it would be career suicide so I declined but I did it in tears because of what the recruiter offered.

They have more important robots to get working first, like the one that can pleasure Musk's shredded dick. We all know, deep inside, that's why the lead really left.

I would probably leave the company too if my RSUs were about to go into the toilet. Which is highly likely in the next 6-18 months, depending on how long it takes the market to collapse from the current mania cycle

If an offer is too good to be true, it is.

Kills every project.

His army of yes men wouldn’t let him do something bold and logical. No, Elon is always the smartest person in the room. Elon is the one who will innovate robotics to a whole new level. Elon is the genius that pioneered breakthroughs in AI! /s

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If you do the math on TC vs hours worked on some of these AI adjacent roles it's actually kind of a raw deal.

Well if it makes you feel better they pay production aka the people actually exposed toxic fumes and chemicals the lowest legal amount possible to pay those very few high salaries. It’s basically making blood money but you have to look at the people you’re fucking every day.

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Money isn’t everything. Sure, getting paid top dollar is nice, but if you constantly have to shovel shit, that takes a toll on your mental wellbeing. And that is never worth it. Took me a while to learn this lesson: Work to live, not live to work.

Optimus in shambles....shares up 15%

Lol because they already have enough cars on stock. Rumours have it that Gigafactory will be closed.

Why is his dick shredded? Or does it mean something else in Chinese?

Yea but, you couldn’t even design and make a functional arm for a robot like Optimus, why are you taking the high ground, can you tell us where did the Optimus robot touched you inappropriately?

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That's not the point. They need an army of robots that they can send into American cities when the population rebels.

I think one of the reasons is that he only wants boys, and using IVF its possible to at least increase the odds of that by using sperm selection. He is truly a sick individual.

Stonks 30,000 Optimus sales by march etc

Hires fleeing lead to do what? Fetch coffee?

[The video of a mocap-controlled robot kicking the operator in the nads](https://www.reddit.com/r/interesting/comments/1pzf1fv/man_wearing_a_mocap_suit_kicks_himself_in_the) might be my favorite metaphor for the current state of the tech industry.

Maybe they'll put him in a Spandex suit and put him behind the popcorn counter in their diner!

I do think his real focus is on the billionaire security force robots. He was very concerned with the idea that if you hire these navy seal types for your security details, that in an apocalypse scenario they could too easily turn on him. I think that is why he wants the humanoid focus for his robots. They can be adapted. So he can build and sell and acquire and surround himself with these robots, without them being military and falling under NDAA, ASDA regulations. IE after developed, then can then quickly be armed and adapted to his defense. Without triggering national security alarms up-front.

Maybe they needed a seamstress to make spandex bodysuits?

I think it's a well known fact that Leon had a botched penis enlargement and now it looks like the dick equivalent of cauliflower ear

Rumor mill says he had a botched penis enlargement.

from someone that doesn't follow this much at all, how can the presenter make such a silly mistake? A-15? Really hurts his credibility. We all miss-speak, but damn...not a good look.

Not to mention the supposedly botched dick enlargement surgery that makes traditional sex impossible

Hopefully your new company doesn't expect you to work 80+ hour weeks and be on call to come into work any time they demand.

Everyone should evaluate potential earnings at hourly rates based on how much they will demand you to work. Your time is valuable and those last hours of time to have a life are increasingly more valuable. And if they won't be upfront about what they'll demand you should probably see that as a big red flag.

That one guy at xAI talking about how he spent like 40 hours straight at the office was just awful. Even if he didn't realize it. An employer that lets you do that isn't just indifferent to the long term mental and physical health of their employees, at that point they aren't even producing efficient short term results.

That would be pretty rare unless you’re not worth your salts.

Yes, but he would have ruined it like he does everything else he gets his hands on.

You're overestimating the power of Xitter and toxic media. He bought it because he was forced to buy it after running his mouth about it. He's playing politics for the same reasons others do, for the power trip. It makes him feel like he's important even though he's a pathetic loner with a lot of money and no true friends.

The same reason they have no self driving cars.

He'll build a robot sewing machine.

Anyone with half a brain at Tesla should be looking for liferafts because the ship has hit the iceberg.

Recruiters like to hype things up too. They get paid for making deals.

Also consider other factors like impact on health. Stress can do a lot of bad things to a person.

Yeah I know. The rare times where a recruiter actually responded, i was always skeptical but never led to anything real

Potato /🥔

Or downgraded to a kilofactory.

Tesla has been shedding capable senior managers & engineers steady over the past few years. This is part of that trend.

It's pretty rare to find a job that doesn't demand 80+ work weeks and being abailable to drop whatever you're doing to come in at any time? Is that what you're saying?

100%. If you burn yourself out and have a health crisis it will cost you far more than whatever extra you got working yourself that hard.

Elon thinks he knows more than the engineers that build his stuff, and they want to work for someone that appreciates them

Not that it’s hard to find if you go looking for it but if you want to avoid that and have skills then yes it’s rare you’d get that ass schedule.

Okay, so you're saying it's rare to get a schedule like that. I thought you were saying it's rare *not* to. I don't know what things were like for you at Tesla but Elon has shown on various occasions that he basically expects his employees to work under conditions like this.

Perhaps the work was done by his nuro link surgeon who keeps killing the monkeies with the implants.

6 month non-compete clause now over? If so that means he might've actually been poached out directly. I bet anyone wanting to work on humanoid robots would much rather want to be working on Boston Dynamics stuff than working on fake teleoperated optimus bots.

Humanoid robots can't build cars, no matter how good they are. The pieces are huge and assembly is done by specialised machines that are REALLY good at one job.