Rivian will keep spending on self-driving software even if that pushes back profitability, founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said last week at TechCrunch Disrupt. Scaringe told TechCrunch in an interview that autonomy will let the company design vehicles far different from the SUVs and trucks it sells today. He said that once Rivian looks past its R2 and R3 models, the technology opens up broad design possibilities for a personally owned autonomous vehicle. He added that he is enthusiastic about the next decade of transportation because of what the capability allows companies to imagine.
Scaringe's remarks revisit an idea the industry raised a decade ago. Autonomous vehicle companies and established automakers predicted that self-driving software paired with simpler, more compact electric drivetrains would set off a wave of new vehicle forms. Mercedes-Benz showed a rounded pod-like design and a long tech-heavy sedan, Toyota and others proposed rooms on wheels, and Hyundai presented a concept car with legs. That design revolution stayed in the concept and prototyping stage, as autonomy took longer to develop than expected and automakers struggled with the realities of manufacturing and selling a new vehicle category.
The current climate differs, according to the article, because robotaxis now operate on streets in multiple cities worldwide. Their software has reached a level capable of running them safely on public roads at scale, though issues remain in integrating them with cars, bikes, pedestrians and emergency vehicles. Electric motors and batteries have become cheaper, and Tesla, Rivian and many companies in China have improved at building them at volume.
Rivian still faces substantial work before driverless vehicles. It is beginning to scale production of the R2 SUV, a step it needs to get right to reverse years of losses incurred in becoming a major EV player. On autonomy, the company reworked its self-driving software approach just a few years ago and still has progress to make. It has shipped a driver assistance system that lets drivers remove their hands from the wheel while continuing to watch the road, and it has promised that by the end of this year the software will handle start-to-finish, point-to-point navigation without intervention, though still under driver supervision. Rivian is also working toward full autonomy, which it plans to deploy in robotaxi versions of the R2 SUV available on Uber's ride-hail app.
Scaringe said most autonomous driving will occur in personally owned vehicles. He noted that 95% of the trillions of miles driven in the United States are in vehicles owned by individuals or households, and said that even with Level 4 capabilities, referencing the SAE classification for autonomous operation in a specific area, a dramatic societal shift away from that is unlikely. He said the share might fall from 95% to 90% or to 80%, but that most miles would probably stay the same for societal and psychological reasons. That belief has him thinking about a fully autonomous, personally owned Rivian. He said the vehicle after R3 will be called R4, and that the company has not shown what it looks like.
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