Rivian‘s release notes for its next R1 software update, version 2026.23, show that the EV maker will soon expand the Lane Change on Command feature beyond divided highways for the first time.
The rollout to customer vehicles had not begun as of Monday morning, according to the notes published by the software-focused tracking platform Rivian Roamer.
With the update, second-generation R1T and R1S vehicles running Universal Hands-Free will execute lane changes on any road where the hands-free system operates: the driver activates the turn signal and, in the release notes’ words, lets “your vehicle handle the rest.”
Until now, Rivian‘s own fine print restricted the feature to divided highways — a limitation the new software removes across the more than 3.5 million miles of US and Canadian roads the hands-free system covers.
The release is the company’s first R1 feature update in two months, following the fixes-only 2026.15 build in early June, and continues a year in which Rivian has shifted from the near-biweekly software rhythm of its early years to fewer, larger bundles.
The update applies to the R1T and R1S only.
The R2, which runs its own separate software track, is on an independent version series — most recently 2026.24.40, released in mid-July — and receives none of these notes.
Within the R1 fleet, the generation split runs through the release.
The lane-change expansion and the new Autonomy view content and a shared-digital-key fix — are exclusive to second-generation vehicles built from mid-2024, on the newer zonal architecture.
One audio fix is exclusive to first-generation vehicles, and the remainder — the Rivian Assistant suite, Gear Guard, ride height, charging, connectivity and Apple Music work, and the post-crash power-management improvement — applies to both generations.
The Autonomy Layer
The lane-change expansion builds directly on the foundation laid in December, when update 2025.46 expanded hands-free driving coverage roughly 24-fold — from 135,000 miles of pre-mapped highways to over 3.5 million miles of marked roads.
With the new update, the Autonomy view on the driver display will render traffic lights and traffic cones, giving drivers what the notes call a more complete visualization of traffic conditions.
The system, however, still does not stop or slow for the lights it now draws — Universal Hands-Free’s launch limitation remains in force — making the update a case of perception running ahead of action.
The gap is the one Rivian has promised to close with point-to-point functionality targeted for later in 2026 — a commitment now entering its final five months.
The features sit behind the Autonomy+ subscription, a paid service since April after Rivian extended the free trial three times — $49.99 a month or $2,500 as a one-time, VIN-linked purchase that transfers with the vehicle.
First-generation R1s, limited to the Driver+ suite on older hardware, are excluded from the headline features here as they have been from every autonomy release since the platform split.
The Assistant Becomes the Second Pillar
The update’s other axis is Rivian Assistant, which gains three capabilities that together turn the voice layer into an ownership interface.
Memory lets the assistant personalize responses using preferences and context from prior conversations.
The feature is enabled per driver profile through the center display or the mobile app’s new “Rivian Intelligence” section, and stored details can be deleted from the same place.
Separately, charger search goes conversational as the assistant now handles place-anchored queries. The vehicles will now improve charger lookup along an active route, layered on top of additional fast-charging locations added to maps in the same release.
Service requests can now be drafted by voice: the driver describes an issue, the assistant writes the draft, and the owner reviews, edits and submits it in the mobile app.
The Long Tail
The remainder of the release runs deep rather than flashy, and — except where noted — reaches both R1 generations. Gear Guard’s parked-vehicle monitoring improves at detecting bumps and impacts.
Ride-height leveling gets better in city driving and on slopes and uneven surfaces. Charging-session initialization becomes more robust.
A second-generation-only fix restores passive unlock and passive start from shared digital keys — with affected owners instructed to remove and re-add the key. Cellular signal-strength reporting and Wi-Fi connectivity both get fixes.
Apple Music receives the largest single block of attention as automatic streaming-quality adjustment improves, a new setting enables higher-quality stereo playback over cellular, library changes made outside the vehicle sync faster.
Additionally, four rare failure modes — songs not playing, two sources playing simultaneously, failed logins, missing Home-tab content — have been fixed.
The remaining fixes apply across both generations — a driver-display reboot triggered by phone calls switching to in-vehicle Bluetooth, a Drive Modes app lag after updates or resets — and, in the release’s most safety-relevant line, improved post-crash power management for every R1 on the road.
A Slower, Heavier Cadence
The update arrives against a documented deceleration in Rivian’s release rhythm: seven R1 updates so far in 2026, against 11 across 2025, 19 in 2024 and 21 in 2023, per community version trackers.
The year opened with the cold-weather and drive-modes release that introduced the Apple Watch companion app, continued through spring feature builds and June’s hotfix, and now delivers its mid-year feature bundle with a Gen 2 weighting that has become the pattern — the marquee items exclusive to the newer architecture, the first generation served by fixes and stewardship.
Rivian has not announced a public release date for 2026.23.
The version was first observed in pre-release channels over the weekend by Rivian Roamer, which monitors rollout status across more than 8,000 connected vehicles, and release notes can change before general rollout.
The update lands in a busy August for the company, days after second-quarter results that beat Wall Street estimates and a full reset of the R1 lineup’s lease offers.
