Rivian unveils custom AI chip and next level of automated driving
From a UK perspective, Rivian is particularly exciting because the California-based company entered into a major partnership with Volkswagen last year. Although Volkswagen was not prominently mentioned during the „Autonomy & AI Day“, it is clear that the Wolfsburg-based automaker is likely to benefit from some of the innovations showcased at the event in the long term. After all, Volkswagen already holds a 12.3 per cent stake in Rivian, making it the second-largest shareholder, and plans to further increase its investment. In a joint venture, both partners are already developing a zonal electronic architecture and the associated software for software-defined vehicles.So, what did Rivian present at its ‘Autonomy & AI Day’ in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley? While these developments are entirely independent of the joint venture with Volkswagen, they focus on three closely interconnected areas: a self-developed chip, artificial intelligence, and autonomous driving.Custom-developed AI chip for autonomous drivingRivian first introduced its self-developed silicon chip, the Rivian Autonomy Processor (RAP1). This bespoke 5-nm processor integrates processing and memory into a single multi-chip module and was specifically designed for vision-centric physical AI. It serves as a cornerstone for Rivian’s autonomous driving ambitions, with plans to initially deploy it for Level 3 automated driving and later for Level 4, which is required for applications such as robotaxis.“I couldn’t be more excited for the work our teams are driving in autonomy and AI,” said RJ Scaringe, Founder and CEO of Rivian. “Our updated hardware platform, which includes our in-house 1600 sparse TOPS inference chip, will enable us to achieve dramatic progress in self-driving to ultimately deliver on our goal of delivering L4. This represents an inflection point for the ownership experience – ultimately being able to give customers their time back when in the car.” He also hinted that the technology could enable robotaxi operations in the future.The new RAP1 silicon chip will power Rivian’s third-generation autonomy computer, the Autonomy Compute Module 3 (ACM3). This module is capable of delivering up to 1,600 trillion operations per second and processing 5 billion pixels per second; exceptionally high figures designed to enable autonomous driving. After all, autonomous driving requires extremely fast AI chips inside the vehicle to process vast amounts of data in real time.
Unlike its rival Tesla, Rivian does not plan to rely solely on cameras and computer vision-based image analysis for autonomous driving. Instead, starting with the electric SUV R2, announced for 2026, Rivian will incorporate LiDAR technology—a laser-based 3D measurement system that provides highly precise distance measurement and environmental mapping for autonomous driving. LiDAR will complement Rivian’s multimodal sensor strategy, delivering detailed three-dimensional spatial data and redundant sensing to improve real-time detection of edge cases while driving. Rivian also introduced its Large Driving Model (LDM), a foundational autonomous model trained like a Large Language Model (LLM). The model is designed to derive superior driving strategies for each vehicle from vast datasets.Starting with Level 2, but Levels 3 and 4 are plannedFor now, Level 4 autonomous driving, where a vehicle can operate entirely without a driver in a predefined area, remains a long-term goal for Rivian. Initially, the second generation of the R1 will feature enhancements in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), including Universal Hands-Free (UHF). This system enables hands-free driving for extended periods across significantly more locations, covering over 3.5 million miles of roads in the USA and Canada.However, responsibility for the system remains with the driver. They must keep their eyes on the road and be ready to take control of the steering wheel at any time if prompted by the vehicle. This represents a high-quality Level 2 assistance system, but it is still far from true autonomous driving. It also falls short of Mercedes-Benz’s Drive Pilot, where the driver can take their eyes off the road (“eyes-off”) under Level 3 conditions but must still be ready to intervene. Rivian plans to introduce such Level 3 functionality as an intermediate step towards Level 4 autonomous driving.The use of Universal Hands-Free (UHF) will be chargeable for Rivian drivers. The company plans to launch a subscription called Autonomy+, which includes UHF and will see its features continuously expanded. The system is set to launch in early 2026, priced at 2,500 US dollars (one-time payment) or 49.99 US dollars per month. This is significantly lower than Tesla’s pricing, which charges 8,000 US dollars for Full Self-Driving (FSD) in the USA as a one-time fee or 99 US dollars per month.One thing is clear: Rivian has ambitions to rapidly introduce Level 4 autonomous driving. “Now, while our initial focus will be on personally owned vehicles, which today represent a vast majority of the miles to the United States, this also enables us to pursue opportunities in the rideshare space,” said CEO RJ Scaringe at the event. In other words, Rivian vehicles could eventually be used for robotaxi services, similar to those already offered by Waymo, a subsidiary of Google.rivian.com, cnbc.com, techcrunch.comThis article was first published by Florian Treiß for electrive’s German edition.
Comments (0)