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Senior reporter Sean O’Kane popped over to Palo Alto to check out Rivian’s Autonomy & AI Day, which some insiders told us would be the company’s most important event. I’m not sure I would categorize it as such, but how about I let the journalist on the ground give his assessment?
Via Sean (and a few of my thoughts sprinkled in) after the event …
It was easy to get lost in the buzz words at times during Rivian’s “Autonomy & AI Day” this week. But there was a clear underlying message being shared: Rivian is trying to build a company that is about more than just selling cars.
It’s not going as far as Tesla. For instance, there were no humanoid robots wandering around the company’s Palo Alto campus.
But it is clearly building out other revenue-generating products — and advanced driver assistance is at the starting gates.
Rivian’s hands-free version of its driver-assistance software — which today can be used on about 135,000 miles of road — will expand to 3.5 million miles and include surface streets. This expanded capability, which will launch in early 2026 and eventually include point-to-point hands-free (but eyes on) automated driving comes with a cost of $2,500 or $49.99 per month.
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Then there is its future hands-off, eyes-off system. Rivian revealed it has developed its own custom 5nm processor, which it says will be built in collaboration with both Arm and TSMC. That chip will power Rivian’s “autonomy computer” — the backbone of an upgraded automated-driving system —that will debut in the R2 SUV in late 2026.
Tha …