Rivian will host its inaugural AI & Autonomy Day on Thursday, with the EV maker expected to unveil its roadmap for hands-off, eyes-off autonomous driving and unveil an in-house AI assistant built over nearly two years of development.
The event begins at 12 p.m. Eastern Time at Rivian’s Palo Alto offices and will be livestreamed on the company’s YouTube channel.
Rivian‘s founder and CEO RJ Scaringe and executives from the Autonomy, Hardware and Software teams will also be speaking at the event.
Hands-Off Driving in 2026
Rivian is expected to announce that hands-free point-to-point driving will be available starting in 2026 for its Gen 2 vehicles while providing a roadmap for the following stage of eyes-off.
“In 2026 we’ll be hands-free point-to-point. We’re going to show some of this at our autonomy day. Then we’ll increasingly start to allow eyes off,” CEO RJ Scaringe said in an interview earlier this year.
The company previously stated that “a hands-off/eyes-off feature is planned for controlled conditions with our current Gen 2 vehicles” in 2026.
Scaringe has outlined a phased approach: hands-free highway driving first, followed by hands-free everywhere, then address-to-address driving where the vehicle handles the full journey.
Looking further ahead, Scaringe said he hopes “hands-off everywhere” integrated with point-to-point navigation will be available between 2028 and 2030.
“That ability to have your time back, to be able to be in the car on the commute, and be on your phone, be reading a book, be resting, and then move even beyond that eyes-off, hands-off environment, but into an environment where the vehicle can operate empty, it dramatically changes your life,” Scaringe said.
In-House AI Assistant
Rivian is also expected to debut an AI assistant built almost entirely in-house over nearly two years of development.
Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid previously indicated the goal is to put the AI assistant into customer hands before the end of the year.
The AI assistant is being developed separately from Rivian’s $5.8 billion joint venture with Volkswagen, which focuses on electrical architecture and infotainment.
“Autonomy and AI are separate for now, but it doesn’t mean that it may not be in the future,” Bensaid told TechCrunch.
LiDAR Integration for Next-Gen Vehicles
Rivian is preparing to integrate LiDAR sensors into its next-generation vehicles, marking a major shift in its self-driving hardware strategy as costs for the high-precision technology continue to drop sharply.
As reported by EV in October, a job posting published in mid-August for Rivian’s Pose Team — the group responsible for mapping, localization, and sensor calibration — detailed new software engineering roles.
The listing included the development of algorithms for calibrating the company’s “Autonomy sensor suite which includes cameras, IMU, LiDAR, and radar.”
The Rivian Autonomy Platform (RAP) includes 11 high-resolution exterior cameras with visibility up to 10 seconds ahead at highway speeds, 12 ultrasonic sensors providing 360-degree coverage, five radars (four corner plus one forward), and a driver-facing camera for fatigue and distraction detection.
The Gen 2 autonomy computer delivers 250 trillion operations per second of compute power — 10 times more powerful than Gen 1 vehicles.
Analyst Views: R2/R3 ‘Far More Critical’
Wall Street has mixed expectations heading into the event.
Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco downgraded Rivian from Equalweight to Underweight with a $12 price target.
“Rivian’s strong design and performance help, but Tesla’s rapidly advancing FSD will require greater conviction in Rivian‘s AV capabilities — expect more details at Rivian’s upcoming AI day on December 11th,” Percoco wrote.
The analyst forecast $4.2 billion in free cash flow burn in 2026 and a $2.9 billion adjusted EBIT loss, though he expects Rivian to receive its next tranche of capital from Volkswagen upon completion of winter testing in Q1 2026.
RBC Capital reiterated a Sector Perform rating and $14 price target last week.
“We applaud Rivian for its autonomy pivot especially given our view that Level 3 autonomy will be a critical step for all OEMs,” analyst Tom Narayan wrote.
“Its goal of in-sourcing could make autonomy a profit center, which is important especially given the company’s liquidity situation,” he added.
However, Narayan cautioned that profitability remains the key concern.
“While we see December 11’s event as important, being able to scale R2/R3 profitably will be far more critical for investors,” he said.
