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Rivian Strengthens Georgia Ties With $450,000 in Scholarships, Training, and STEM Support
Rivian is doubling down on Georgia, not just with factories, but by investing directly in people. Through new partnerships across the state, Rivian is helping build a local pipeline of engineers, technicians, veterans, and young innovators who will shape the future of electric mobility. At Georgia Tech, the new Rivian Scholars program will provide $150,000 over three years in tuition support for juniors studying mechanical and electrical engineering, specifically targeting students from top engineering schools to keep talent in Georgia.…

Rivian Universal Hands-Free Is Rolling Out in 2025.46, What It Can and Can’t Do
Rivian’s Universal Hands-Free is officially rolling out starting today as part of the 2025.46 software update for Gen 2 R1T and R1S. Universal Hands-Free lets you drive without your hands on the steering wheel for extended periods, as long as you’re paying attention and looking at the road. This is not full self-driving, and Rivian is very clear about that, but it is a meaningful step forward compared to traditional lane centering. According to Rivian, Universal Hands-Free now works on…

Video – Rivian Unlocks Hands Free Driving and Digital Key in 2025.46 Update
Rivian just rolled out a huge December software update, and if you own a Gen 2 vehicle, this one is packed with good stuff. The headline feature is Universal Hands-Free, which enables hands-free driving across more than 3.5 million miles of roads in North America. You also get Digital Key with Ultra-Wideband support, plus new Driver Display customization options including a full map view and a dedicated Autonomy view. I was able to get early access to 2025.46 and spent…

Clearing Up the Confusion Around Rivian R2 and LiDAR
There’s been a lot of mixed messaging and confusion around how Rivian plans to launch R2, so I want to clearly lay out what we know today and how this rollout is actually going to work. Rivian will launch R2 in early 2026 with Gen 2 autonomy hardware. This is the same autonomy stack that’s currently shipping in today’s Gen 2 R1T and R1S. That means cameras and radar only, no LiDAR, and no next-generation Rivian silicon at launch. Early…

Why Rivian’s Ground Truth Fleet Matters More Than Any Single Feature
During Rivian’s Autonomy & AI Day, James Philbin dropped one of the most important lines of the entire event, and it was easy to miss. When the Rivian R2 launches with LiDAR, every vehicle on the road becomes a ground truth vehicle. That one statement quietly explains how Rivian plans to scale autonomy far beyond a small internal test fleet. Ground truth is how autonomy systems learn what actually happened in the real world. It is the reference data that…
