Hours later, as I rode in a 2025 R1S SUV during my 15-minute demo of Rivian\u2019s new self-described \u201cLarge Driving Model,\u201d I was reminded of that message.<\/p>\n
The EV equipped with the automated-driving software drove myself and two Rivian employees on a switchback route near the company\u2019s campus. As we glided past Tesla\u2019s engineering office, I noticed a Model S in front of us slow to turn into the rival company\u2019s lot. The R1S eventually noticed this, too, braking hard just before the Rivian employee nearly intervened.<\/p>\n
During my demo drive, there was one actual disengagement. The employee in the driver\u2019s seat took over as we passed through a one-lane section of road due to some tree-trimming. Minor stuff overall. But it wasn\u2019t exactly rare either; I spotted multiple other demo rides<\/a> that had disengagements<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n The rest of the drive went well enough for software that is not ready to be shipped, especially when you consider that Rivian threw out its old rules-based driver assistance system and adopted an end-to-end approach \u2014 which is how Tesla developed Full Self-Driving (Supervised). It stopped at stoplights, it handled turns, it slowed for speed bumps, all without programmed rules telling it to do these things.<\/p>\n A quiet pivot in 2021<\/p>\n Rivian\u2019s old system \u201cwas all very deterministic, and it was all very structured,\u201d CEO RJ Scaringe said in an interview Thursday. \u201cEverything that the vehicle did was the result of a prescribed control strategy written by humans.\u201d<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco Scaringe said that when Rivian saw transformer-based artificial intelligence taking off in 2021, he quietly \u201creconstituted the team and started with a clean sheet and said, let\u2019s design our self-driving platform for an AI-centric world.\u201d<\/p>\n After spending \u201ca lot of time in the basement,\u201d Rivian launched the new ground-up driving software in 2024 on its second-generation R1 vehicles, which use Nvidia\u2019s Orin processors. <\/p>\n Scaringe said it was only recently that his company started to see dramatic progress \u201conce the data started really pouring in.\u201d<\/p>\n Rivian is betting it can train its Large Driving Model (LDM) on fleet data so quickly that it will allow the company to roll out what it calls \u201cUniversal Hands-Free\u201d later this month. That means Rivian owners will be able to take their hands off the wheel on 3.5 million miles of roads in the U.S. and Canada (so long as there are visible painted lines). In the back half of 2026, Rivian will allow \u201cpoint-to-point\u201d driving, or the consumer version of the demo we received Thursday.<\/p>\n The \u2018eyes off\u2019 to \u2018hands off\u2019 challenge<\/p>\n By the end of 2026, after Rivian has started shipping its smaller, more affordable R2 SUVs, it will ditch the Nvidia chips and outfit those vehicles with a new custom autonomy computer unveiled Thursday. That computer, plus a lidar sensor, will eventually allow drivers to take their hands and eyes off the road. True autonomy \u2014 where a driver doesn\u2019t have to worry about re-taking control of the vehicle \u2014 lies well beyond that and will largely depend on how fast Rivian can train its LDM.<\/p>\n This rollout introduces a near-term challenge for Rivian. The new autonomy computer and lidar won\u2019t be ready until months after the R2 goes on sale. If customers want a vehicle that can handle eyes-off driving (or more), they\u2019ll have to wait. But the R2 is a crucial product for Rivian, and the company needs it to sell well \u2014 especially in the wake of declining sales of its first-generation vehicles<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen tech is moving as fast as it is, there\u2019s always going to be some level of obsolescence, and so what we want to do here is to be really direct\u201d about what\u2019s coming, Scaringe said. The early R2s will still get Rivian\u2019s promised \u201cpoint-to-point\u201d driving, which will be based on the new software and will be hands-off but not eyes-off.<\/p>\n \u201cSo [if] you\u2019re buying an R2 and you buy it in the first nine months, it\u2019s just going to be more constrained,\u201d he said. \u201cI think what will happen is some customers will say \u2018that matters a lot to me, and I\u2019m going to wait.\u2019 And some will say \u2018I want the newest, best things now, and I\u2019m going to get the R2 now, and maybe I\u2019ll trade it in a year or two, and I\u2019ll get the next version later. Fortunately, there\u2019s so much demand backlog for R2 that we think, by being upfront with this, customers can make the decision themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn a perfect world, everything times at the same time, but the timeline of the vehicle and the timeline of the autonomy platform are just not perfectly aligned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/r2-lidar.jpeg\")
Image Credits:Rivian<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n