Robert’s deep engineering experience spans over 20 years across aerospace, self-driving cars and robotics. Prior to co-founding Reliable Robotics, in his role as Director of Flight Software at SpaceX, Robert was responsible for flight, ground, simulation and data management software, successfully launching and operating the first 10 Falcon-9 rockets, 5 Dragon spacecraft and Grasshopper VTVL tests. He led the development of the onboard flight software for the first commercial mission to the International Space Station, for which he received special recognition from NASA. 

At Tesla, Robert brought to market the first consumer automobile with fully unassisted self-driving capability. He led the team through developing novel computer vision, human-machine interfaces and controls technologies, resulting in the successful deployment of Autopilot 1.0 and the 7.0 version of Tesla’s instrument panel. At Google [X], Robert led a team working on a secret project combining AI techniques with practical robotic systems to bring advanced machine perception and manipulation technologies to large vehicles.

Robert is a Presidential Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS), holds multiple patents, a B.S. in Computer Science, a B.S. in Computer Engineering, and an M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Oregon State University.