Rivian has integrated the central, AI-powered system of the Sequoia-backed platform Flow to manage all engineering requirements for both R1 and R2 vehicle production.
Flow’s tool allows more than 1,000 Rivian engineers to work in one live platform for cross-functional systems engineering.
Engineers can manage requirements in hardware, software, and testing and collaborate in real time, without relying on static documents that quickly become outdated.
“Rivian’s engineering teams iterate rapidly across vehicle programs,” Flow wrote in a statement on Thursday. “That requires more than documentation: a live system of record that reflects the current state of the product and can adapt as designs evolve.
According to Flow, applying AI to physical engineering is not a problem that large language models (LLMs) can solve on their own, but a “context engineering problem” that needs to be thought of in a structured way.
Requirements
Flow said that the EV maker conducted a “structured evaluation” to find a system that could match both the speed of iteration and the scale of its engineering organization.
The platform needed to scale to over 1 million requirements across hardware and software and to support 1,000 concurrent users without lagging.
Additionally, it had to allow for the transition from existing tools without disrupting production.
According to Flow, the two companies collaborated on a staged rollout of the platform.
“Programs transitioned one by one, allowing adoption to build organically while minimizing risk,” the software company stated.
About Flow
In October, Flow Engineering announced that it raised a $23 million Series A round led by Sequoia Capital, bringing its total funding to $34 million.
According to founder and CEO Pari Singh, the funding was led by Sequoia Capital and Stripe’s founders Patrick Collison and John Collison.
Roelof Botha, former PayPal CFO and Sequoia’s Managing Partner at the time, joined Flow’s Board of Directors then.
Botha has served on the boards of several prominent technology companies in recent years, including YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, and Evernote.
He stepped down from his management role at Sequoia Capital in late 2025.
In the same publication on LinkedIn, Singh announced that “companies like Rivian [Auto], Joby [Aero], Astranis [Space] and Radiant [Nuclear] are now building on Flow.”
Production
Rivian currently operates its only manufacturing plant in Normal, Illinois. There, it produces its electric delivery van (EDV) and the R1S and R1T models.
The company is also preparing to begin production of its mid-size SUV, the R2. The first validation builds have already rolled off the line.
The model is scheduled to launch in the second quarter, with full details set to be revealed on March 12.
The company broke ground on its second facility in Georgia late last year, after construction was delayed due to several legal challenges in the state.
However, the new plant — supported by billions in state incentives and a Department of Energy (DOE) loan — is not expected to be completed until late 2027, with production anticipated to begin in 2028.
The new facility will support production of the R2 model and is designed to accommodate the upcoming R3 and R3X SUVs as well.
