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Rivian R2 With LiDAR Spotted Testing in California
A Reddit user, u/LawlessSpace, spotted an R2 near Irvine with hardware that isn’t supposed to hit customers until early 2027. This one’s a Half Moon Grey R2 on 19-inch wheels, and if you look at the top of the windshield, you’ll notice a LiDAR unit up there.
So this is pretty much a validation build. Rivian already said the LiDAR-equipped R2 is coming in late 2026/early 2027, so if you see a car with that sensor now, it’s definitely out for testing and validation, not hanging out in someone’s driveway. That’s what makes spotting one out in the wild so cool.
What really stands out in the photos is how nicely Rivian integrated the LiDAR into the car. Most cars with LiDAR right now look like someone just slapped a puck onto the roof. Rivian actually built theirs into the body, right up near the top of the glass, so it actually looks like it belongs there instead of being tacked on at the last second.
The wheels are a smaller detail but still worth mentioning. Those 19s aren’t actually available yet, they’re set to be the standard wheels on the R2, but you can’t get them right now. This test car is just running on what the R2 Standard will eventually offer.
Quick recap if you missed it: Back in December, Rivian shared details about its next-gen autonomy platform and said LiDAR would show up on the R2 with that hardware, but none of it would be ready when the R2 first launches. I wrote a full breakdown on that here.
Then in February, I dug into the big question owners keep asking: do you grab an early R2 now, or wait for the LiDAR version? That piece is here.
And in May, James Philbin hopped on a Reddit AMA and told everyone not to worry about it. He doesn’t think there’ll be any big difference between LiDAR and non-LiDAR cars for quite a while. The main point of the LiDAR cars is to gather data for Rivian’s Large Driving Model, and whatever gets learned from all that ends up helping the whole Gen 2 and newer fleet, no matter what sensors your car has.
So, seeing a LiDAR R2 out in a parking lot doesn’t mean non-LiDAR owners are about to get left behind. If anything, it just shows that Rivian is already laying the groundwork for that early 2027 launch. Whether they actually hit that 2027 target is another question, and that’s what I keep coming back to.
Jose, everything I have heard someone from Rivian say (including RJ) is that LIDAR/RAP1 is coming late 2026. Yet here you clearly indicate you expect it to be early 2027 (and you think it might actually slip to 2028) Did something officially change, or are you just guessing?
Late 2026/early 2027 is what Rivian continues to say. So I think bother are interchangeable, at least for me.
I find it funny when reading on other forums how much people are hung up on the LiDAR missing and not even mentioning RAP1. We should all know cars can drive without LiDAR already, but sometimes not so well without strong AI hardware. I really want the Launch Edition, but I really want RAP1 to be included. I fear the IT in me will win and make me wait for the R2 with the more advanced AI hardware lol.
Exactly. The question is if this an Apple M1 moment, or is it just a faster version of the same? The difference between “I had to take over driving twice vs. four times today” is not nearly the same as “I had to take over twice vs. my car can drop me off at the airport and go back home”. The M1 thing also carries to future updates. We know there will be a RAP+1 chip coming down the pipe, but does this switch mean that each RAP chip gets updated features for a much longer time than the non-RAP that get quickly locked in place.
I kinda look at the chipset themselves as the first 3 revisions of AMD CPUs since moving to chiplettes.
That said, LiDAR/RAP1 will be L3 maybe, versus L2 of the current hardware. Rivian is being upfront, but softspoken compared to Gen1 R1 marketing promises
All you out there are going to be further stressed when, on that date the RAP1 with Lidar comes available and there are rumors about the RAP2, R1/Gen3, better battery, etc. There will always be a roadmap processor, feature set that will prevent tech-bros from buying current tech absent of roadmapped promises.
Nope. I’m already assuming that at some point there will be an 800 volt version (maybe in a year, maybe in 5). I know that there will be ones with faster processors, more features, bright colors, some good changes, some bad, etc. But, the problem here is that RAP1 has been positioned as an order of magnitude change. Going to 800 volt lets me charge faster which would of course be nice, but the 400 volt can still fast charge and is ‘fast enough’ for me. RAP1 on the other hand has been positioned as the difference between hands off and eyes off. It is of course a promise of future capability so it should be taken with a grain of salt, but since we have clearly been told that the current hardware will not ever support eyes off why does it surprise you that some people think it might be worth waiting a few months? Since they have already announced it, I really feel like Rivian should be a bit more transparent here so that people can make informed decisions without a potential customer backlash.
I think Rivian has been very transparent about the differences between current hardware and the RAP1. On numerous occasions, they state “eyes off” will require RAP1. For some that’s not important. But Im glad its coming in the near future, and not 2 years from now. Makes the decision a lot easier for those of us willing to wait.
While it is better integrated than a Waymo — it still looks ugly to me. I keep my cars 4-5 years — I don’t think waiting for lidar (for my use case) makes any difference. I doubt there will be any difference between lidar equipped R2s and non-lidar equipped R2s in the first 4-5 years.