While the autonomous vehicle industry chases robotaxis, the ALSO-DoorDash partnership makes the case that last-mile delivery might be the more interesting problem to solve, and that the right structure for cracking it is an operator and a builder committing to each other early.
Rivian's Autonomy+ subscription goes live for Gen 2 R1 owners on April 4th, and with it comes a real question about value. For $49.99 a month you get two features today, with the more compelling ones still months away. Here's why a lot of owners are probably going to sit this one out.
France's Finance Minister confirmed Wednesday that between 30 and 40% of Gulf refining capacity has been damaged or destroyed, pulling roughly 11 million barrels a day off global oil markets — a useful reminder that gasoline pricing is tied to global supply chains in ways that are completely outside your control. Electricity isn't immune to price swings, but it's driven by very different forces, and disruptions like this have a way of sharpening the math on a decision a lot of people were already thinking about.
The auto industry just took a collective $65 billion writedown on its EV ambitions, and the response from almost every major player has been the same: bring the gas engine back, call it a hybrid, and pretend that's progress. Ford killed the F-150 Lightning. Ram shelved its electric pickup entirely. Honda walked away from its 0 Series to the tune of $15 billion. Meanwhile, Rivian showed up at SXSW and unveiled a full lineup of pure EVs without flinching. Here's why that matters, and why all these hybrids and range extenders are just a way of delaying the real work.
The EV market isn't dying, it's sorting itself out. At least 18 automakers have canceled or scaled back EV plans in the U.S., but companies like Rivian are doubling down. The difference between who's folding and who isn't comes down to one thing: who actually believed in this from the start.
Rivian's $1.25 billion Uber robotaxi deal is exciting, but only $300 million is actually guaranteed. The rest depends on hitting autonomy milestones, the Georgia factory doesn't exist yet, and Uber has 25+ other AV partners it can fall back on. The strategy is sound. The timeline is not.
I recently made the case for why the R2 Performance Launch Edition is the best value in the lineup. But starting in late 2026, Rivian will begin shipping R2s with Gen 3 hardware, LiDAR, and the custom RAP1 chip, and there is no retrofit path for early buyers. If autonomy and future-proofing matter to you, here is the other side of that argument.
The R1S Dual Large and R2 Performance are closer than you might think, with nearly identical range and the R2 actually making more horsepower for about $26,000 less. Here's how to decide which Rivian SUV fits your life.
The R2 Performance Launch Edition looks like a $4,000 jump over the Premium, but once you factor in lifetime Autonomy+, the tow package, semi-active suspension, and 206 extra horsepower, the real gap is closer to $1,000 in net value. Here's why it's the smartest buy in the R2 lineup.
Every serious automaker eventually does this. BMW has M. Mercedes has AMG. Ford has Raptor. Rivian now has RAD, and unlike those legacy programs, the first thing it delivered wasn't a special edition truck. It was a software update that gave Quad-Motor owners race-proven tuning tools, straight from Pikes Peak to their driveway.
