Musk Connections: Former engineer at Tesla, Director of Electrical and Software Engineering at the Boring Company
Other Corporate Affiliations: Driver assist technology startup Comma.ai
DOGE Deployment: Office of Personnel Management
RICCARDO BIASINI IS A TOP DOGE ENGINEER AND SENIOR ADVISOR AT OPM, CONTRIBUTING TO THE GOVERNMENT-WIDE EMAIL SYSTEM AND AUTOMATED REDUCTION IN FORCE (AUTORIF) SOFTWARE
- Riccardo Biasini is operating in the Office of Personnel Management for DOGE. According to a court filing from OPM, Biasini is a Senior Advisor to the Director and listed as the contact person for the Government-Wide Email System. OPM likely used the email system to issue its deferred resignation offers and the email demanding all federal employees respond with five bullet points of accomplishments or face termination.
- According to reporting from WIRED, Biasini is leading the DOGE effort to edit the code of the government’s Automated Reduction in Force (AutoRIF) software, which can be used to facilitate terminations of federal employees.
BIASINI PREVIOUSLY WORKED A COMMA.AI, AN ANDREESSEN HOROWITZ BACKED STARTUP THAT HAS SKIRTED REGULATORY EFFORTS FROM THE NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION
- Biasini worked at Comma.ai, a startup that sells semi-autonomous driving technology, from 2016-2020, including as CEO from 2018-2019. Comma.ai was backed with a $3.1 million investment from Andreessen Horowitz.
- In 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a warning letter to Comma.ai, asking the company to prove that it is safe and complying with regulatory requirements before it sold its product. Comma.ai skirted regulatory efforts by making its software open source and selling the hardware separately, while seemingly continuing to test its product on public roads without permits.
BIASINI PREVIOUSLY WORKED FOR MUSK AT TESLA, LEADING ITS AUTOSTEER TECHNOLOGY THAT WAS LATER RESPONSIBLE FOR 2 MILLION RECALLED VEHICLES
- Biasini worked for Tesla from 2011-2016 and was responsible for Tesla’s “Traffic Aware Cruise Control”, or Autosteer, a driver assistance technology that preceded self driving. In 2023, Tesla recalled 2 million vehicles, including models from Biasini’s time at the company, due to issues with Autosteer.
- Biasini was one of the executives and employees of Musk’s other companies brought in to evaluate Twitter’s engineering after Musk purchased the company.
As Elon Musk’s DOGE continues to tear through agencies with little oversight or transparency, the Revolving Door Project is publishing profiles of reported DOGE employees: who they are, where they came from, and any conflicts of interest that might make their unfettered access to the federal government dangerous to the public. Read them all here.