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 firms like Ford and Basic Motors, which have each launched related methods previously few years. (Ford has named its system BlueCruise, whereas GM has SuperCruise.) Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (supervised) system, which isn’t absolutely 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 might make to regulatory policy. The corporate did put up its first constructive gross revenue within the fourth quarter of 2024. That was buoyed by a company-wide cost-cutting effort in 2024 but additionally 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 the moment, CEO RJ Scaringe was talking about dreamy scenarios the place Rivian homeowners may begin a hike and have their autos drive autonomously to fulfill them on the end. However autonomy took a again seat within the years since — at the very least publicly — as Rivian targeted on finishing its IPO, 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 — because of 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 often called “end-to-end” coaching, an identical method to what Tesla is doing with its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software program. As an alternative 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.
Very similar to 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 broaden past different varieties of roads.
“In the end, the top state, we expect hands-free, eyes-off must be accessible basically all over the place,” Scaringe stated.
To achieve that time, Scaringe stated Rivian is evaluating a “number of actually inventive methods we are able to entry a considerable quantity of GPUs with out having to deploy the capex ourselves” with a purpose to practice its self-driving fashions — a notable break from how Tesla is spending billions of dollars on GPUs.
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