Rivian launched a major software update on Thursday, which included the expansion of its Autonomy platform coverage by 24 times to 3.5 million miles of marked roads.
In the company’s “hands-off, eyes-on” feature, which it now calls ‘Universal Hands-Free,’ the vehicle operates both on and off highways as long as “the lane lines are clearly marked.”
A few days ago, a first public demo drive of the new platform captured multiple errors, including an attempted red light violation and a failure to stop for a pedestrian, which prompted safety driver interventions.
By then, a Rivian executive riding in the back seat of the vehicle emphasized that the software being tested was a development build — and not the one shipping to customers.
However, as the scrutiny by regulators on autonomous driving technology increases, the company warned that the hands-free assisted driving function “will not stop or slow down for traffic lights or stop signs.”
Rivian urges owners to review the Owner’s Guide for additional details on the feature.
Point-to-Point Hands-Off in 2026
The EV maker’s founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said earlier this year that point-to-point driving would be available for Gen 2 vehicles in 2026.
He confirmed the ambitions in the ‘Autonomy & AI Day’ event held on December 11, while revealing that eyes-off will be the next step.
The new autonomy features in this week’s update are only available for second-generation Rivian vehicles — as Gen 1 units only have the more limited Driver+ assisted driving.
Earlier this year, Rivian extended the free trial of Autonomy+ for its Gen 2 customers, from “early 2025 to “late 2025.”
The company has now updated the terms: all new vehicle deliveries include a 60-day trial of Rivian Autonomy+.
Starting in February, customers can subscribe to the platform for $49.99 per month or purchase it outright for $2,500.
Misleading Autonomy Features?
Rivian‘s Autonomy platform is currently on SAE’s Level 2 of automation, where the driver is fully responsible for driving the vehicle while it provides assistance.
With the upcoming features, the company aims to reach Level 3, where the system handles all aspects of driving and the driver remains available to take over.
Level 4 autonomy is also in the plans, as revealed in last week’s event, as the EV maker unveiled its custom 5nm processor and transition to in-house silicon.
“Our updated hardware platform, which includes our in-house 1600 sparse TOPS inference chip, will enable us to achieve dramatic progress in self-driving to ultimately deliver on our goal of delivering L4,” Scaringe stated then.
Rivian x Tesla
Rivian’s driver-assistance software currently falls between Tesla’s Autopilot (L1) and the more advanced Full-Self Driving (Supervised), which is gradually moving toward Level 3 autonomy.
The two EV makers take different approaches to self-driving technology: Tesla relies primarily on camera-based vision, while Rivian uses a neural network approach, with confirmed plans to include LiDAR in future models.
A Bloomberg report on Tuesday said Tesla could be suspended from selling vehicles in California for 30 days, as it is not allowed to use the ‘Autopilot’ term to describe features below L3 autonomy.
Earlier this year, Tesla was also forced to alter FSD’s name to ‘Intelligent Assisted Driving’ (“智能辅助驾驶”) in China, due to new rules that banned terms like ‘autonomous driving’ or ‘full self-driving.’
