Rivian has quietly spent nearly two years developing its own AI assistant, a sophisticated in-vehicle platform that goes far beyond a simple chatbot. The electric vehicle maker plans to reveal more details during its AI and Autonomy Day on December 11, as it pushes deeper into vertical integration while keeping this technology separate from its massive Volkswagen partnership.
Rivian just dropped a bombshell that's been two years in the making. The electric vehicle maker has been quietly building its own AI assistant from the ground up, and it's not your typical automotive chatbot thrown into a dashboard. This is a full-scale agentic platform designed to integrate with every vehicle control, according to exclusive details shared with TechCrunch.
The timing couldn't be more telling. While Tesla dominates headlines with its Full Self-Driving updates and Mercedes pushes its MBUX system, Rivian has been working in stealth mode on what software chief Wassym Bensaid calls a "model and platform agnostic" architecture. The company targets putting this technology in customers' hands by year-end, with a full reveal planned for its AI and Autonomy Day livestream on December 11.
What sets Rivian's approach apart is the sophisticated hybrid architecture. The system splits workloads between edge AI processing directly in the vehicle and cloud-based computing for more demanding tasks. "We use what the industry loves to now call an agentic framework, but we thought about that architecture since very early so that we can interface with different models," Bensaid told TechCrunch in earlier interviews.
The development team, based out of Rivian's Palo Alto office, built most of the AI software stack in-house, including custom models and what they call the "orchestration layer" - essentially the traffic control system that coordinates multiple AI models working simultaneously. This isn't just voice commands for climate control; it's designed to understand and manage complex vehicle operations while learning driver preferences.
This move aligns perfectly with Rivian's broader vertical integration strategy. The company already overhauled its flagship R1T truck and R1S SUV in 2024, redesigning everything from battery packs to electrical architecture. Now they're building the brain to tie it all together.
