How Is Rivian Going To Lead On Driver Assist Technology? – CleanTechnica

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There’s not often news in the EV world that baffles me, or even really surprises me, but I’ve been a little thrown off by some announcements from Rivian this week, including how they’ve come about.

Rivian is a cool EV startup that I really like. It could actually be the company I’m most eager to see succeed at this moment. It seems to have a good core, a good heart, and a good plan. The Rivian R2 and R3 are at the top of my list for vehicles I’d be most interested in buying next. I also love that Rivian Amazon delivery vehicles are everywhere, and it’s exciting to see that Rivian and Volkswagen have teamed up to help each other advance in the increasingly competitive EV arena.

But I’m a bit confused about Rivian’s recent moves around driver-assist technology. First of all, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said this week that the company aims to launch hands-off advanced driver-assist technology in 2025 and eyes-off driver-assist tech in 2026, with the implication that it would be a leader on this.

I’m confused for a few reasons, and it’s times like these that I resort to bullet-point lists. Here are a few things that come to mind on this news:

• GM’s Cruise (“Super Cruise”) has been working on autonomous driving for years, and launched actual robotaxis. Presumably, it’s well ahead of Rivian on this. Right?
• Mercedes-Benz has had hands-free driving — to a limited extent — in some of its vehicles for a couple of years. Again, is it not ahead of Rivian on this?
• You’ve got Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” tech as well, of course, and its connection to growing AI at Tesla has largely caused Tesla’s stock price to skyrocket in recent months or years. Is Rivian’s focus on driver-assist tech a strategy to help with the stock price and financial backing? Or is it really somehow close to Tesla in achieving hands-off and eyes-off autonomous driving?
• How much software and hardware has Rivian actually developed on his own in this space, and what can it offer to other automakers that NVIDIA and Mobileye can’t?
• If Rivian is indeed reaching high levels of semi-autonomous or autonomous driving, how is it that we haven’t heard more about this development in recent years?
• In short, is it all just hype, or is Rivian actually able to become a leader on highly advanced driver assist or autonomous driving technology?

“Advancing driver assistance technology will give buyers their ‘time back,’ Scaringe said, allowing them to get on their phones, read books or send emails while at the wheel.” Hmm … that sounds more like Elon Musk than RJ Scaringe. Scaringe also added that advanced AI is “something we’re hyper focused on.” As David Havasi said in the video discussion below, RJ isn’t the type of guy who makes big, bold claims without being ready to back them up, he’s not the PT Barnum type. But it’s really hard to not be a little cynical about what is going on here. What am I missing? Can anyone answer the questions above?