Rivian has denied that Chinese LiDAR maker RoboSense is the supplier for its upcoming R2 autonomous driving system, a spokesperson told EV.
The denial comes two months after circumstantial evidence that had pointed to a supplier relationship between the two companies.
EV reported in January that RoboSense’s public descriptions of its customers — including a “leading emerging automaker in North America,” a “North American new energy vehicle brand,” and a “global top-tier EV pickup brand vehicle OEM” — matched Rivian‘s profile.
RoboSense’s most recent annual filing, published this week alongside its Q4 FY2025 results, described one of its design win customers as “a leading global manufacturer of SUVs and trucks.”
The company did not name the customer.
“While I don’t know what company RoboSense was referring to, it is not Rivian,” the spokesperson said in a statement responding to EV‘s reporting.
Rivian announced in December that it would integrate a front-facing long-range LiDAR sensor into the R2 starting in late 2026 but has not disclosed the supplier.
The company’s spokesperson has not mentioned the name of the supplier when contacting EV.
What Rivian Has Said
At its inaugural AI and Autonomy Day in December, Rivian announced that a later configuration of R2’s sensor stack would include one LiDAR unit positioned at the top of the windshield, alongside 11 cameras and five radars, powered by its in-house developed RAP1 processor.
James Philbin, vice president of autonomy and AI, said every LiDAR-equipped R2 would become a “ground-truthing vehicle” for training the company’s self-driving model.
He called the decision to add LiDAR a “no-brainer.”
Throughout 2025, founder and CEO RJ Scaringe has repeatedly highlighted the dramatic cost decline of LiDAR sensors.
“The cost of LiDAR used to be tens of thousands of dollars. It’s now low, a couple of hundred bucks,” he said on The Verge‘s Decoder podcast. “It’s a really great sensor that can do things that cameras can’t.”
Rivian has not indicated when it will name its LiDAR partner.
RoboSense, headquartered in Shenzhen and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, has disclosed multiple unnamed OEM partnerships through progressively specific descriptions over the past year.
Why the Evidence Pointed to Rivian
EV‘s January report was based on a series of increasingly specific customer descriptions published by RoboSense over the course of 2025, each of which narrowed the field toward Rivian.
In April 2025, RoboSense said it had partnered with “a leading emerging automaker in North America” and separately referenced a “North American new energy vehicle brand.” At the time, the only publicly traded pure-play EV makers headquartered in North America were Rivian, Tesla, and Lucid. Tesla has explicitly rejected LiDAR. Lucid has included LiDAR in its DreamDrive Pro system since 2021 but has never disclosed its supplier — and that relationship predates RoboSense’s North American customer announcements by several years. Rivian had spent months publicly signalling its intention to adopt LiDAR.
Four months later, in August, a RoboSense infographic listed eight top OEM customers and described one as a “global top-tier EV pickup brand vehicle OEM.”
While Tesla also produces the Cybertruck, Rivian is the only pure-play EV company whose brand identity is built around pickup trucks — the R1T was its debut vehicle and the foundation of its adventure-focused positioning.
Tesla is primarily a sedan and SUV maker that added a pickup to its lineup.
Detroit automakers GM and Ford also produce electric pickups but are not EV-only companies, and Ford has recently cancelled the F-150 Lightning.
In December, Rivian confirmed at its AI and Autonomy Day that it would add LiDAR to the R2 starting in late 2026. It described its supplier only as “undisclosed.” The timing coincided precisely with RoboSense’s customer announcements.
In its latest annual filing, published this week, RoboSense shifted the language to “a leading global manufacturer of SUVs and trucks” — a description that again matches Rivian, which produces both the R1S SUV and the R1T pickup, and is preparing to launch the R2 SUV.
Additionally, Scaringe’s public comments about LiDAR costing “a couple of hundred bucks” aligned closely with RoboSense’s disclosed ADAS average selling price, which fell to approximately 1,500 yuan ($218) per unit in Q4 FY2025.
No other North American EV maker matched the full set of descriptions — an emerging automaker, a new energy vehicle brand, a pickup truck OEM, and a manufacturer of SUVs and trucks — as precisely as Rivian.
Rivian’s spokesperson did not explain which company RoboSense’s descriptions referred to, stating only that “it is not Rivian.”
Supplier Landscape
Rivian’s LiDAR supplier remains unknown.
The leading automotive LiDAR companies include RoboSense, Hesai Technology, Innoviz Technologies, Cepton (now owned by Koito), and Aeva Technologies.
RoboSense counts BYD, Geely, SAIC’s brand IM Motors, Dongfeng Nissan, and several undisclosed global OEMs among its customers.
The choice of supplier carries strategic implications.
A Chinese LiDAR maker would offer significantly lower costs — RoboSense’s average ADAS selling price fell to approximately 1,500 yuan ($218) per unit in Q4 FY2025 — but could face scrutiny given growing US restrictions on Chinese automotive technology.
The EV maker updated its R2 webpage last week to announce that demo drives of its upcoming midsize SUV are “coming soon,” as the company prepares to place the vehicle in showrooms and begin production.
