The robotic swerved by 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 approach, the phrases “I’m caught” flashing yellow on the poor droid’s display.

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

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 geared up 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 observed a Mannequin S in entrance of us gradual to show into the rival firm’s lot. The R1S ultimately observed this, too, braking laborious simply earlier than the Rivian worker almost intervened.

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

The remainder of the drive went effectively 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 stated in an interview Thursday. “Every little thing that the automobile did was the results of a prescribed management technique written by people.”

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

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

Scaringe stated it was solely not too long ago that his firm began to see dramatic progress “as soon as the information began actually pouring in.”

Rivian is betting it may prepare its Massive Driving Mannequin (LDM) on fleet information so rapidly that it’s going to permit the corporate to roll out what it calls “Common Palms-Free” driving in early 2026. Which means Rivian homeowners will be capable of take their fingers 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 buyer model of the demo we acquired Thursday.

The ‘eyes off’ to ‘fingers off’ problem

By the tip of 2026, after Rivian has began delivery its smaller, extra reasonably priced R2 SUVs, it is going to ditch the Nvidia chips and outfit these automobiles with a brand new customized autonomy laptop unveiled Thursday. That laptop, plus a lidar sensor, will ultimately permit drivers to take their fingers and eyes off the street. True autonomy — the place a driver doesn’t have to fret about re-taking management of the automobile — lies effectively past that and can largely rely on how briskly Rivian can prepare its LDM.

This rollout introduces a near-term problem for Rivian. The brand new autonomy laptop and lidar received’t be prepared till months after the R2 goes on sale. If prospects desire a automobile 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 effectively — particularly within the wake of declining sales of its first-generation vehicles.

“When tech is shifting as quick as it’s, there’s at all times going to be some stage of obsolescence, and so what we need to do right here is to be actually direct” about what’s coming, Scaringe stated. The early R2s will nonetheless get Rivian’s promised “point-to-point” driving, which might be primarily based on the brand new software program and might 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 stated. “I feel what’s going to occur is a few prospects will say ‘that issues rather a lot to me, and I’m going to attend.’ And a few will say ‘I need the most recent, greatest issues now, and I’m going to get the R2 now, and perhaps I’ll commerce it in a 12 months or two, and I’ll get the following model later. Fortuitously, there’s a lot demand backlog for R2 that we predict, by being upfront with this, prospects could make the choice themselves.”

“In an ideal world, the whole lot instances on the identical time, however the timeline of the automobile and the timeline of the autonomy platform are simply not completely aligned,” he stated.

After I first interviewed Scaringe in 2018, earlier than Rivian even confirmed what its automobiles regarded like, he shared a objective that also rattles round my head. He wished to make Rivian’s automobiles so able to driving themselves that: “for those who go for a hike, and also you begin at one level and also you end at one other level, you’ve got the automobile meet you on the finish of the path.”

It was the form of pie-in-the-sky promise about self-driving automobiles that was all the fad seven years in the past, nevertheless it caught with me no less than as a result of it was one thing that felt true to Rivian’s entire model of aspirational journey.

Scaringe informed me Thursday he nonetheless thinks it’s doable for Rivian to allow a use case like that within the subsequent few years. It actually received’t occur till the corporate checks and builds its more-capable R2 automobiles, which is no less than a 12 months away in a best-case situation.

“We may [do that]. It’s not been an enormous focus,” he stated. That would 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]? Filth roads, off street? Straightforward,” he stated. Simply don’t anticipate a Rivian driving itself up Hell’s Gate in Moab.

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