Rivian stated Thursday it plans to launch a hands-off model of its driver help system for freeway driving “in a couple of weeks,” and an “eyes-off” model in 2026.
The hands-off system will let Rivian compete with corporations like Ford and General Motors, which have each launched related techniques up to now few years. (Ford has named its system BlueCruise, whereas GM has SuperCruise.) Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (supervised) system, which isn’t totally autonomous regardless of its title, requires customers to maintain their palms on the wheel.
The launch comes as Rivian is forecasting one other difficult yr, pushed largely by uncertainty round what modifications the Trump administration would possibly make to regulatory coverage. The firm did submit its first constructive gross revenue within the fourth quarter of 2024. That was buoyed by a company-wide cost-cutting effort in 2024 but in addition a rise in software program and companies income.
Rivian’s autonomy ambitions have been front-and-center when the corporate broke stealth in 2018. At that point, CEO RJ Scaringe was speaking about dreamy situations the place Rivian homeowners might begin a hike and have their autos drive autonomously to satisfy them on the end. But autonomy took a again seat within the years since — at the very least publicly — as Rivian centered on finishing its Initial Public Offering, and launching and scaling three totally different autos.
Rivian has now posted back-to-back years of constructing and delivering round 50,000 autos, and has some respiration room — due to a serious take care of Volkswagen finalized late final yr — to give attention to rolling out options like a hands-off system.
Rivian is coaching its driver help platform utilizing what’s generally known as “end-to-end” coaching, an analogous strategy to what Tesla is doing with its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software program. Instead of writing out hard-coded guidelines, Rivian makes use of knowledge from the cameras and radar sensors to coach the fashions that energy its driver-assistance system.
Much like Ford and GM, Rivian is beginning out by permitting the hands-off function to solely be used on highways. Scaringe stated Thursday that, as soon as the eyes-off model launches in 2026, Rivian will slowly enable the motive force help system to increase past different forms of roads.
“Ultimately, the tip state, we expect hands-free, eyes-off must be out there primarily all over the place,” Scaringe stated.
To attain that time, Scaringe stated Rivian is evaluating a “number of actually inventive methods we will entry a considerable quantity of GPUs with out having to deploy the capex ourselves” to be able to prepare its self-driving fashions — a notable break from how Tesla is spending billions of {dollars} on GPUs.
