Rivian is pushing to become a technology supplier rather than solely an electric vehicle manufacturer, founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said during an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt. The company has spent the past year deepening its in-house capabilities, and Scaringe described ambitions that stretch well beyond making electric trucks and SUVs. Rivian is developing its own AI models to run its in-vehicle assistant and is constructing a fully automated driving stack for its passenger vehicles and planned robotaxis through a partnership with Uber.
The automaker is also designing custom silicon: a 5 nm processor built in collaboration with Arm and TSMC. Alongside that effort, Rivian operates a $5.8 billion joint technology venture with Volkswagen Group centered on electric architecture and software. Scaringe said he wants to widen that venture to cover AI and autonomy, and he is pursuing licensing deals for Rivian's technology with many different brands.
Scaringe's ventures outside Rivian remain tied back to the automaker. He started a micromobility skunkworks effort that has since separated into a startup called Also. He also founded an industrial robotics company, Mind Robotics, which Rivian owns 31% of and which counts the automaker as a prospective customer. Onstage at the event, Scaringe announced that Doug Field, a former executive at Ford, Apple and Tesla, has been hired as president of Mind Robotics.
Scaringe is weighing how autonomy could change Rivian's own lineup. He said that looking past the R2 and R3 vehicles toward form factors for a personally owned autonomous vehicle opens a wide range of design possibilities and could produce markedly different experiences. He added that he is enthusiastic about what the next decade of transportation will enable companies to consider.
The company's robotaxi effort with Uber represents another potential route to outside business, with a successful launch potentially leading to additional deals. Taken together, the licensing push, the robotics venture and the robotaxi plans sketch a future in which Rivian sells its electric architecture, software, AI models and autonomy stack to other companies.
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