Rivian's CEO says the company is on track to release a supervised self-driving system similar to Tesla's Full Self-Driving later this year.
During a fireside chat at a Masters of Scale event in Anaheim on Thursday, CEO RJ Scaringe said Rivian will release an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) that could enable the company's second-generation cars and the new R2 to drive on their own with supervision from one destination to another — also known as point-to-point driving.
The CEO compared the tech to Tesla FSD.
"Later this year, we'll have full supervised point-to-point, which will be very similar to Tesla's FSD," he said. "And that'll roll out to all of our Gen 2 vehicles and, of course, R2."
The release would be a notable step up from Rivian's current self-driving system, called Universal Hands-Free, if Scaringe's projection is realized.
UHF is an ADAS that can handle steering and speed control on about 3.5 million miles of clearly-marked roads in the US and Canada. It does not navigate turns, traffic lights, or parking lots like Tesla's FSD Supervised.
Scaringe's pronouncement could mean that Rivian has advanced its ADAS to a level of driving similar to FSD within a year of its release to customers.
The CEO did not specify if there would be a limit on the number of miles the self-driving tech could handle upon first release. Rivian did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last December, the company announced a push to develop fully autonomous driving technology for its future vehicle lineup, enabling hands-free, eyes-off driving.
Scaringe said at the event that unsupervised self-driving will be released next year.
Part of Rivian's strategy is to develop autonomous driving for robotaxi fleets. The company inked a $1.25 billion deal with Uber in March, in which the ride-hailing company could buy up to 50,000 R2s for its robotaxi aspirations.
