Rivian for 50 dollars a month will make you a passenger in your own car
The American company Rivian has introduced the Autonomy+ autonomous driving system, which will cost $49.99 per month or a one-time fee of $2,500, and over time should turn the driver into a passenger in their own electric vehicle.
What is known
CEO Rivian RJ Scaringe stated during a presentation at the 'Autonomy AI Day' event that Rivian's long-term goal is to bring a Level 4 autonomous driving system to the market, in which human involvement behind the wheel is not required in some scenarios. A key element will be the proprietary Rivian Autonomy Processor (RAP1) chip for the Autonomy Compute Module with a performance of 1600 TOPS (trillions of operations per second).
Printed circuit board with Rivian chip. Photo: Rivian
Rivian also reported that starting at the end of 2026, it plans to install lidar in the R2 series crossovers to enhance the sensor suite and improve spatial recognition, including complex, so-called "edge" scenarios. Testing is currently underway, after which lidar should help increase the safety and reliability of the system in real-world conditions.
The company separately announced the Universal Hands-Free Driving function for existing R1 models, which in the "near future" will allow hands-free driving on more than 3.5 million miles of roads in the US and Canada, including regular marked highways. The Autonomy+ subscription will include Universal Hands-Free and lane change on demand, with automatic parking and highway travel from exit to exit added later.
In addition to the autopilot, Rivian is preparing the AI-based Rivian Assistant voice assistant, which is slated to appear early next year in the first two generations of R1 electric vehicles and will be able to engage in natural language dialogue and interact with external services. The first integration will be with Google Calendar, with support for other applications and services expected in the future.
Source: Rivian