Rivian’s in-house developed autonomy platform, equipped with 11 cameras and five radars, currently supports hands-free driving on major highways through a feature called Enhanced Highway Assist, which was rolled out in March via a software update for second-generation R1T and R1S vehicles.
The system from the Irvine-based EV maker initially covers about 130,000 miles of highways in the U.S. and Canada.
Rivian plans to expand coverage to additional highways and selected surface roads later this year. A more advanced “hands-off, eyes-off” capability, designed for use in controlled conditions, is expected to follow.
The carmaker said the platform, including its camera hardware, was developed internally. In March, it claimed its cameras offered “the highest resolution of any vehicle in North America.”
In a new interview on the Inc. podcast, Rivian founder and chief executive RJ Scaringe described the next phase of the company’s driver assistance technology.
“Today on an R1 you can get on the highway and take your hands off the wheel, and the vehicle drives itself,” Scaringe said. “That’s going to expand from highways to being able to go point-to-point — so you get in your car in your driveway, put in an address, and it drives itself.”
He added that Rivian ultimately aims to reach a stage where the vehicle can operate without the driver needing to monitor the road: “Then we expand from there to go, not just hands-off point-to-point, but hands-off, eyes-off where you can take your hands off the wheel and eyes off the road.”
Next month, Tesla plans to begin fully autonomous rides using its Model Y vehicles in Austin, Texas. The timeline was recently reiterated by the CEO Elon Musk who added that, on day one, the company will have “10-20” Model Ys on the road before scaling the fleet.
On Monday, analysts at D.A. Davidson and Stifel raised their price targets for Rivian, citing increased confidence in the upcoming R2 SUV, the company’s first-quarter performance, and strategic funding support, including a joint venture with Volkswagen.
Last week, the company reported a record gross profit of $206 million for the quarter, surpassing Wall Street expectations and marking its second straight quarter of positive profit.
The result was largely driven by $157 million in revenue from automotive regulatory credit sales. While the EV maker booked most of those credits in the final quarter last year, it reported half of its full-year guidance for 2025 in the first quarter alone.
Rivian shares closed 2.7% higher on Monday at $14.64.
