Rivian’s point-to-point autonomy feature will roll out by the end of 2026, according to a company executive. The launch version, however, will come with some operational domain restrictions.
Speaking at the Evercore 9th Annual ADAS Forum, James Philbin, Rivian’s head of autonomous driving, revealed the launch timeline for Tesla’s FSD competitor. He said his company remains on track for the rollout this year.
The roadmap Philbin shared aligns with CEO RJ Scaringe’s June statement that point-to-point driving would arrive this year, while “eyes-off” driving was pushed to 2027.
Philbin also mentioned that the launch will be phased. Early adopters will receive it before Rivian offers it to Gen 2 R1 and R2 customers that have subscribed to Autonomy+ in 2027. (via RivianTrackr)
Rivian’s point-to-point driving will run on the RAP1 chips. The EV maker will first dogfood it to R2-owning employees before releasing it to external customers next year.
The initial version of the autonomous tech, however, will ship with some limitations. According to Philbin, the software will skip some real-world driving cases, such as parking lots.
Rivian has been training its driving tech with live fleets in several American cities, including San Francisco, Chicago, and Miami. The company is collecting data on edge cases but will focus more on large-scale simulation in 2027.
The Irvine-based automaker is targeting Level 4 autonomy by 2028. It already has a $1.25 billion deal with Uber to license the software for its taxi-hailing fleet. However, Rivian will maximize revenue by also selling its point-to-point driving to private car owners, after tweaking the software as required.
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