Rivian is back as the headline sponsor of SXSW 2026, and this year it's all about R2. From off-road passenger rides to panels with RJ Scaringe and Kara Swisher, here's everything happening at the Electric Roadhouse in Austin from March 13 through 18.

Rivian has officially launched the Rivian Adventure Department, or RAD, its extreme testing and performance engineering team that feeds real world data directly into production vehicles. RAD Tuner, which debuted in December 2025 with update 2025.46 for Gen 2 Quad owners, is one of the clearest examples of that philosophy in action, and now the team is making its public debut at the 2026 FAT Ice Race in Big Sky, Montana with the new Quad R1S.

Rivian has partnered with Mark Rober and CrunchLabs to create fun, educational content that breaks down EV technology, safety, and engineering, starting with a live SXSW session and expanding into videos and events throughout the year.

Rivian’s Q4 2025 shareholder letter makes one thing clear, R2 is the pivot point. With manufacturing validation builds complete and deliveries still targeted for Q2 2026, Rivian is preparing for its biggest launch yet. At the same time, autonomy hardware, in house silicon, and surging software revenue are starting to reshape the company’s financial story as it pushes toward scale.