Rivian Autonomy and AI day: Live updates from the EV maker's inaugural event

Rivian goes all in on 'universal hands-free' driving at its first Autonomy and AI day

Rivian

A bunch of Rivian vehicles.

EV automaker Rivian just held its inaugural Autonomy and AI day which, unsurprisingly, focused extensively on hands-free driving. An upcoming software update promises the introduction of "universal hands-free" driving. The company says its vehicles will be able to autonomously navigate more than 3.5 million miles of roads in North America, "covering the vast majority of marked roads in the US."

New features announced today include the company's own custom processor called RAP1, a new AI assistant, as well as LiDAR sensors and universal hands-free driving coming to the R2.

Read more: Rivian goes all in on 'universal hands-free' driving at its first Autonomy and AI day

That was a lot shorter than I expected, but quite a lot of AI and chip news for an EV maker's event. Thanks to Sam and Karissa for liveblogging it all and you, dear readers, for staying with us! We've got a nice little news post with all the details from the company today, if you'd like to refer to it.

Screenshot (Rivian)

That's a wrap on Rivian's Autonomy and AI day!

Regardless, thanks to everyone who followed along with us and stay tuned for more news about Rivian whenever we get it.

Aaaand that's it. Scaringe mentioned that attendees may have a chance to check out some of these new features in person, so hopefully Karissa can tell us more about them at some point.

Sadly, we didn't get any more specificity on when the R2 will officially go on sale though.

Alright, that ended up being only an hour! Now, I'll hopefully get a chance to see some demos.

Scaringe is trying to emphasize how all these changes have been years in the making and everything is coming together now, especially with the upcoming release of the R2 in 2026.

Screenshot (Rivian)

A demo of messaging with Rivian's AI assistant.

It sounds like Rivian collaborated very closely with Google on that integration btw.

RJ Scaringe is back on stage to wrap things up.

Now, instead of calling its vehicles software-defined, Rivian's EVs are shifting to being AI-defined.

I'm very attached to Apple CarPlay when I drive, which also can help you read and respond to messages, but this messaging demo with the Rivian Assistant was very impressive.

Screenshot (Rivian)

A view of the in-vehicle interface with the subtitles "Can you make the seats toasty for everyone except me" indicating the speaker is asking an AI Assistant for help.

The ability for the Rivian Assistant to read your messages in notable, because when I reviewed the R1S back in May, one of my cons was that there was no way to see texts and whatnot from your phone on the car's display.

Rivian then did a demo where the car was asked to navigate to a meetup location just by saying one of the attendee's names, which is meant to show how the AI can sort through different apps and data to simplify your life.

I will say the delay between commands and responses isn't super impressive, but again, this is a live demo.

We saw Rivian Assistant working with Google apps (Maps and Calendar) but it sounds like it will support other third-party services too. Rivian also showed how the assistant can control functions of the car itself, like switching to a more efficient drive mode or turning on the seat warmers. This is definitely something I can get behind: not having to fiddle with buttons and touchscreens while you drive would be really nice.

Screenshot (Rivian)

Rivian's details on its "Deeply integrated agentic framework."

Uh oh, the live demo bug has added a wrinkle. It took two tries for the car to respond to a query about what events are happening today.

That said, it was able to move the time of a call on the first try.

Rivian Assistant is an in-car AI assistant that lets you ask questions like "what's on my calendar." It can also take actions like rescheduling calendar events, which we just saw a live demo of .. people in this room were extremely excited to see that in action just now.

Rivian's Unified Intelligence will also power the company's new digital Assistant — succinctly named the Rivian Assistant. It will be available on vehicles starting next year.

Screenshot (Rivian)

Rivian's Universal Hands Free is reaching 3.5 million more miles.

Apparently the R2 will support 100 TOPS of edge AI computing, which means the car won't need to rely on bouncing data back and forth between servers in the cloud as much.

The company says it is using agentic AI to handle things like vehicle tools and navigation along with third-party AI-based experiences.

Screenshot (Rivian)

Rivian's James Philbin standing next to a screen saying "Autonomy+ will cost $2,500 USD or $49.99/month."

Next up is info about Rivian Unified Intelligence.

Philbin says that Universal hands-free driving will cover 3.5 million miles of roads. It will be available for $2,500 or $50 a month and will be free initially for a limited time.

With universal hands-free driving, Rivian supports more than 3.5 million miles of roads in the US and Canada, this is a major expansion of its map compared with its current autonomy features. Universal hands-free will require an Autonomy+ package which will either be a one-time payment or a monthly subscription.

Philbin just said in-house again. I think I need help from AI to keep count.

In short, this is how the company is relying on machine learning to constantly monitor and analyze traffic data while driving.

Philbin is now trying to make the connection between the development of LLMs and Rivian's large driving model for autonomy.

So RIvian's autonomy data recorder is able to disregard "boring" (typical) driving data but will allow engineers to access information about more complex or edge case scenarios. This will help the company better train its models and react more quickly as they get more data. Again, this is all a bit in the weeds but Rivian is trying to paint a picture of how it will be able to continuously improve its models (which improves its autonomy features for car owners).

Notably, Rivian says the data is anonymized and will not be tied to your VIN.

Screenshot (Rivian)

Rivian's James Philbin standing in front of a screen showing three different streams from camera, camera and radar and camera, radar and LiDAR.

Now Philbin is moving on to Rivian's Autonomy Data Recorder, which allows the company to turn what all of its cars are seeing into data it can use to train and enhance autonomous driving.

There have been a lot of really technical details but we're getting another visual that really shows how the addition of LiDAR allows the car to "see" its surroundings in much more detail. I'm actually pretty impressed with how good that demo looked with just cameras + radar, but it's obvious that LiDAR adds a new level of detail that will be necessary for more advanced self-driving features.

Philbin is now highlighting the important of multi-modality, which simply means using different types of data and sensors (e.g. cameras, LIDAR and radar) to create a more accurate model of the car's environment.

In-house is quickly becoming a buzzword for this stream, as Rivian uses every chance it gets to remind people how much development is happening inside its own walls.

Now James Philbin is taking the stage to talk more about AI and Autonomy.

Screenshot (Rivian)

A slide from Rivian's Autonomy and AI Day titled "Functional Safety for Physical AI."

Furthermore, Rivian says its RAP chips can be networked together via the company's RivLink protocol to scale up performance.

Rivian says the RAP1 was engineered with safety in mind, which is what distinguishes this as a chip for "physical AI" versus other chips that are simply made for inference. That's important when you think about AI tasks running on a vehicle, there's a whole lot less room for error.

Rivian is also reminding people that its entire software stack is designed in house, and without that, the company wouldn't be able to properly utilize the performance and capabilities in its new chip/platform.

Screenshot (Rivian)

Screenshot of Rivian's Autonomy and AI Day event, with the stage showing the Rivian Neural Engine's features and details.

The SoC itself features 14 ARM A720AE cores plus a sub-system with another eight cores.

Screenshot (Rivian)

The screen at Rivian's Autonomy and AI day event, showing the RAP1 chip and some specs.

The integrated memory supports three independent LPDDR5 channels that provide up to 205 GB/s of bandwidth.

We're getting a deep dive into the Rivian's in-house custom chip, the Rivian Autonomous Processor or (RAP1). Lots of technical details here, but the takeaway is that this enables "physical AI." Rivian is already doing a lot to emphasize that autonomy = AI.

The Gen 3 Autonomy computer is said to have four times better peak performance and 2.5x increased power efficiency.

It's based on TSMC's 5nm process and supports up to 800 TOPS of neural compute performance.

The company also says that by designing its own chip/silicon, it has greater control and cost efficiency out of the components that goes in Rivian EVs.

Also important: LiDAR no longer has to be a big ugly bump on top of the car. Rivian just flashed an image of the LiDAR sensor on the R2 and it was very subtle.

Notably, Rivian says the LIDAR sensor won't mess around with your phone's cameras, which is an issue that some vehicles with LIDAR have run into.

The stream is now showing a prototype R2 with a small LIDAR sensor mounted on the car's roof, just above the windshield.

The addition of LiDAR is a big change for Rivian. LiDAR has gotten cheaper and a lot better over the last few years as you can see in this image Rivian just shared on stage.

Karissa Bell for Engadget

A comaprison of how LiDAR worked in 2016 and 2024.

So in total, the R2 will support 11 cameras, five radars and one LIDAR sensor module.

One of the current challenges for the company is that cameras alone can't capture enough data for autonomous driving, which is why the company also relies on radar.

But the big change is that on the upcoming R2, Rivian will also include LIDAR for the first time.

Screenshot (Rivian)

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe introduces the company's custom processor.

We're getting a more detailed look at Rivian's Gen 3 autonomy system, and how its camera + radar + LiDAR setup will enable the R2 to have a much more detailed picture of what's going on around the car.

Additionally, Rivian is now working to expand its in-house design hardware as well.

Now Scaringe is talking about software-defined vehicles that will be tied together by Rivian's Unified Intelligence platform.

Interesting, Scaringe said that the intiial focus will be for people's personal vehicles but he said that eventually this will enable them to enter the ridesharing space.

Following that, Rivian is looking at full eyes-off driving and personal L4 autonomy.

Scaringe says that later this month, Rivian will release its new universal hands-free tech to existing Gen 2 vehicles, followed by point-to-point autonomous driving later in the year.

Going forward, Rivian is leaning even harder into this design philosophy thanks to the arrival of the company's first in-house AI platform.

And there's the first big news of today: a custom Rivian processor that can process 5 billion pixels a second (presumably this will help enable a lot of Rivian's planned autonomous features.)

Scaringe says that Rivian's Gen 2 vehicles established the foundation the company needed to support more sophisticated tech including AI and autonomous driving.

Karissa Bell for Engadget

Rivian's CEO at the company's AI and Autonomy day.

The stream seems to be having some audio issues, but Scaringe is talking about how AI is speeding up the pace of development and how changing the way people design cars as a whole.

RJ has come on stage and is diving right into the importance of AI and autonomy. He's giving us a bit of a history lesson now... I can see why this is going to be a long event.

One good point from this segment is a reminder that cars really do need a lot of different sensors and input in order to properly take in the world.

Now RJ Scaringe is on stage to kick off the presentation.

And we're kicking off with a video segment featuring CEO RJ Scaringe talking about the importance of AI and autonomy.

You can also watch the stream on YouTube, which is what I'm doing.

OK, it's time to get down to business.

The room here is pretty packed. I'm glad I was able to snag a seat for this, especially since we may be here awhile. There's a ton of people standing in the back of this garage space.

For those at home who want to follow along, you can do so by watching the livestream on Rivian's website.

Good morning from Palo Alto! I've made it into the room an got a front row seat for this keynote. Sam, they just gave us the same reminder to make sure we grab some water before this thing starts.

Karissa Bell for Engadget

The stage for Rivian's Autonomy day.

Yes and that is a good note because the event is estimated to last an hour and a half (or even two hours) and who knows, you might not want to stop watching to go to the bathroom.

Ok, we're 15 minutes out from the start of the livestream, so if you want to grab a drink or snack before this thing kicks off, now's a great time.

Karissa Bell for Engadget

A sign with the Rivian logo and the words "Autonomy & AI Day" followed by a welcome message and guidance to check-in booths.

Karissa is reporting that she's arrived at the event and is waiting to check in! Those heaters seem very necessary, although I wonder: is it very cold in the Bay Area now? (I'm in the New York City area.)

That's probably a safe bet and being able to use enhanced voice controls sounds like a handy addition. But with all the hype around AI in general going around right now, it's hard to get super excited about yet another AI-based assistant.

By the way, according to a Techcrunch report from this week, Rivian might have been working on its own AI assistant. And based on an interview earlier in the year with the company's software chief, it was targeting the end of the year to launch this feature. Well here we are on December 11, counting down the days to 2026. Might we see this AI assistant today?

But if you have the room and are a fan of the outdoors, I really do think the R1S is the premier EV pick. On top of having a ton of ground clearance and a rugged design, you can spec Rivians with helpful features like an onboard air pump and roof racks that are super easy to take on and off.

I don't have a Rivian, but I do drive an EV, a Mustang Mach-E. However, I did get a chance to review a tri-motor R1S earlier this year.

And yea, they are big, which is one of the reasons they aren't a great fit for me personally, as I live in the city and have to worry about stuff like parking my car on the street. That's not easy when the car is like 16 feet long.

So I'm sure self-driving cars and Rivians are very exciting, but the American EV industry has had a very shaky year. Our contributing reporter Tim Stevens wrote up a piece about how the developments in the US car market could set the tone for 2026, in case you wanted to get some of the context for today's event.

Sam, do you drive a Rivian? One of my close friends' family car is a Rivian and it's gigantic.

That said, it sort of feels like Rivian is in the same place Tesla was before the launch of the Model 3. So I feel like if Rivian can withstand those headwinds and successfully bring the R2 to market, that will really cement their foothold in the industry.

Granted, the loss of the EV tax credit and tariffs driving up the price of parts and components across the board hit a lot of automakers hard, especially ones like Rivian that don't have ICE or hybrid models to fall back on.

Yep, and with Scaringe talking recently about being in a Rivian while it drove itself around Palo Alto for two hours, it's looking like the big news for this event will be related to the company's self-driving tech.

In an interview with Fortune this week (via BusinessInsider), Scaringe said an ideal car shouldn't just be able to drive itself, but ideally "it can drop you at the airport, it can pick your kids up from school, it can go get things from the store for you."

Rivian already has an "Enhanced Highway Assist" feature that it released to select models of its EV in March, and that allowed for the vehicle to control steering, acceleration and braking on compatible highways. But if you've read about CEO RJ Scaringe in interviews lately, you'll know he has greater ambitions for the company's vehicles.

Since we've known about the R2 since 2024, I feel like people (including me) are getting a little impatient to see Rivian's next EV finally hit the road. And while I'm sure we will learn a few more details about the R2, it's important to remember that the main focus for today will be on expanded autonomy and AI features.

Hey y'all good to be here. While we wait for the event to start for real, it's interesting to think about what Rivian might announce today ahead of the R2's launch, which is supposed to happen sometime in the first half of 2026.

Anyway, the keynote presentation will kick off at 12PM ET, so that's in just under two hours. For now, if you're hoping to get a preview of what Rivian is expected to announce, or maybe follow the company's livestream yourself, check out our article on what to expect today. Spoiler: It's autonomous driving, probably.

Hello everyone and welcome to our liveblog of Rivian's first-ever Autonomy and AI Day. It's the company's inaugural event (that is broadcast on such a scale, anyway), and our curiosity is certainly piqued. Our senior reporter Karissa Bell is making her way to the event in the Bay Area, while myself and senior reviewer Sam Rutherford will be assisting remotely. I'm wondering: are Engadget readers thirsty for EV news?