Autonomy is one of the most overused words in the auto industry. Brands throw it around like it is a single feature you either have or you do not, but the reality is a responsibility ladder, and the higher you climb, the more the car takes on, and the less you do. The clean way to talk about it is…
Rivian made a big decision when it chose to build its own autonomy stack instead of buying something off the shelf from NVIDIA. On the surface, buying a proven platform like NVIDIA DRIVE or even Tesla Full Self-Driving might have looked faster or safer. Long term though, Rivian’s choice to own the full autonomy stack looks like exactly the right move.…
Universal Hands-Free is Rivian’s most advanced hands free driving system yet, and in this video, Mike (aka u/mpshizzle on Reddit) takes a close look at how it actually behaves in the real world. Instead of rehashing release notes, the focus is on what the system does when it encounters imperfect roads, odd situations, and edge cases. After extended testing, one…
Rivian is building something that looks a lot bigger than “just” a better driver assist system. If you zoom out, the real product is the full autonomy pipeline, the in-vehicle compute, the electrical architecture that ties it all together, and the tooling to ship updates safely at scale. That is exactly the kind of stuff legacy automakers keep tripping over,…
Rivian’s 2025.46 software update is less about what just launched and more about what’s coming next. Yes, Gen 2 R1T and R1S owners now have Universal Hands-Free, but this update really feels like the foundation for Rivian’s autonomy push in 2026. Universal Hands-Free is part of Rivian Autonomy+, which begins charging in February 2026. Pricing will be $49.99 per month…
