June 6 (Reuters) - The head of Tesla's Optimus

program, Milan Kovac, is leaving the company, casting

uncertainty over chief executive Elon Musk's humanoid robot

project, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing a person

familiar with the matter.

Kovac, vice president and head of engineering for Optimus,

told colleagues on Friday that he was departing, effective

immediately. Ashok Elluswamy, who leads Tesla's autopilot teams,

will take on Kovac's role, the report said.

Tesla, Kovac and Elluswamy did not immediately respond to

Reuters requests for comment.

Musk has earlier said he expected Tesla to make thousands of

Optimus robots this year.

He said in April that China's export restrictions on

rare-earth magnets had affected production of the humanoid

robots.

Tesla has shifted focus to launching the robots and its

robotaxi service, with much of the company's valuation hanging

on that bet.

"The only things that matter in the long term are autonomy

and Optimus," Musk told CNBC in an interview in May.