Riding onboard with Rivian’s race to autonomy

The robotic swerved by way of the cafeteria of Rivian’s Palo Alto workplace, cabinets adorned with chilled canned coffees — till it didn’t. 5 minutes later, a person rigorously pushed it out of everybody’s manner, the phrases “I’m caught” flashing yellow on the poor droid’s display screen.

It was an inauspicious begin to Rivian’s “Autonomy & AI Day,” a showcase for the corporate’s plans to make its autos able to driving themselves. Rivian doesn’t make the cafeteria robotic and isn’t chargeable for its talents, however there was a well-recognized message in its foibles: these items is difficult.

Hours later, as I rode in a 2025 R1S SUV throughout my 15-minute demo of Rivian’s new self-described “Massive Driving Mannequin,” I used to be reminded of that message.

The EV outfitted with the automated-driving software program drove myself and two Rivian staff on a switchback route close to the corporate’s campus. As we glided previous Tesla’s engineering workplace, I seen a Mannequin S in entrance of us sluggish to show into the rival firm’s lot. The R1S ultimately seen this, too, braking onerous simply earlier than the Rivian worker practically intervened.

Throughout my demo drive, there was one precise disengagement. The worker within the driver’s seat took over as we handed by way of a one-lane part of highway as a consequence of some tree-trimming. Minor stuff general. However it wasn’t precisely uncommon both; I noticed a number of other demo rides that had disengagements, too.

The remainder of the drive went properly sufficient for software program that’s not able to be shipped, particularly when you think about that Rivian threw out its previous rules-based driver help system and adopted an end-to-end method — which is how Tesla developed Full Self-Driving (Supervised). It stopped at stoplights, it dealt with turns, it slowed for pace bumps, all with out programmed guidelines telling it to do these items.

A quiet pivot in 2021

Rivian’s previous system “was all very deterministic, and it was all very structured,” CEO RJ Scaringe mentioned in an interview Thursday. “Every thing that the car did was the results of a prescribed management technique written by people.”

Scaringe mentioned that when Rivian noticed transformer-based synthetic intelligence taking off in 2021, he quietly “reconstituted the workforce and began with a clear sheet and mentioned, let’s design our self-driving platform for an AI-centric world.”

After spending “a whole lot of time within the basement,” Rivian launched the brand new ground-up driving software program in 2024 on its second-generation R1 autos, which use Nvidia’s Orin processors.

Scaringe mentioned it was solely just lately that his firm began to see dramatic progress “as soon as the info began actually pouring in.”

Rivian is betting it will probably practice its Massive Driving Mannequin (LDM) on fleet knowledge so rapidly that it’ll permit the corporate to roll out what it calls “Common Fingers-Free” driving in early 2026. Meaning Rivian homeowners will be capable to take their arms off the wheel on 3.5 million miles of roads within the U.S. and Canada (as long as there are seen painted traces). Within the again half of 2026, Rivian will permit “point-to-point” driving, or the patron model of the demo we obtained Thursday.

The ‘eyes off’ to ‘arms off’ problem

By the tip of 2026, after Rivian has began delivery its smaller, extra inexpensive R2 SUVs, it is going to ditch the Nvidia chips and outfit these autos with a brand new customized autonomy pc unveiled Thursday. That pc, plus a lidar sensor, will ultimately permit drivers to take their arms and eyes off the highway. True autonomy — the place a driver doesn’t have to fret about re-taking management of the car — lies properly past that and can largely rely upon how briskly Rivian can practice its LDM.

This rollout introduces a near-term problem for Rivian. The brand new autonomy pc and lidar received’t be prepared till months after the R2 goes on sale. If prospects need a car that may deal with eyes-off driving (or extra), they’ll have to attend. However the R2 is a vital product for Rivian, and the corporate wants it to promote properly — particularly within the wake of declining sales of its first-generation vehicles.

“When tech is transferring as quick as it’s, there’s all the time going to be some stage of obsolescence, and so what we wish to do right here is to be actually direct” about what’s coming, Scaringe mentioned. The early R2s will nonetheless get Rivian’s promised “point-to-point” driving, which shall be based mostly on the brand new software program and shall be hands-off however not eyes-off.

“So [if] you’re shopping for an R2 and you purchase it within the first 9 months, it’s simply going to be extra constrained,” he mentioned. “I believe what is going to occur is a few prospects will say ‘that issues so much to me, and I’m going to attend.’ And a few will say ‘I need the latest, greatest issues now, and I’m going to get the R2 now, and possibly I’ll commerce it in a yr or two, and I’ll get the subsequent model later. Luckily, there’s a lot demand backlog for R2 that we expect, by being upfront with this, prospects could make the choice themselves.”

“In an ideal world, every thing occasions on the identical time, however the timeline of the car and the timeline of the autonomy platform are simply not completely aligned,” he mentioned.

After I first interviewed Scaringe in 2018, earlier than Rivian even confirmed what its autos appeared like, he shared a aim that also rattles round my head. He wished to make Rivian’s autos so able to driving themselves that: “in the event you go for a hike, and also you begin at one level and also you end at one other level, you may have the car meet you on the finish of the path.”

It was the type of pie-in-the-sky promise about self-driving vehicles that was all the craze seven years in the past, however it caught with me a minimum of as a result of it was one thing that felt true to Rivian’s complete model of aspirational journey.

Scaringe instructed me Thursday he nonetheless thinks it’s attainable for Rivian to allow a use case like that within the subsequent few years. It actually received’t occur till the corporate assessments and builds its more-capable R2 autos, which is a minimum of a yr away in a best-case state of affairs.

“We might [do that]. It’s not been an enormous focus,” he mentioned. That might change as the corporate will get nearer to stage 4 autonomy, although, since by then the corporate can have its LDM educated on trickier roads with out guiding options like lane traces.

“Then, it turns into a little bit of a like, what’s the ODD [operational design domain]? Dust roads, off highway? Straightforward,” he mentioned. Simply don’t count on a Rivian driving itself up Hell’s Gate in Moab.

“We’re not placing any assets into rock crawling autonomously,” he mentioned. “However when it comes to attending to the path head? For positive.”