Rivian Builds Homegrown AI Assistant to Power Its Vehicles
For nearly two years, Rivian has been working on a proprietary AI assistant — essentially a system that would not only deeply integrate with their electric vehicles but would also be more than just a simple infotainment add-on. The company is still being secretive about the details but plans to reveal more at its AI & Autonomy Day on December 11.
It is made clear to TechCrunch by the head of software at Rivian, Wassym Bensaid, that the AI assistant is beyond chatbot capabilities. In fact, the company developed a platform-agnostic architecture from the very beginning to allow the assistant to connect with various foundational models. Along with that, Rivian created software layers that communicate with the workflow managers and control the priority of commands for the smooth work without any conflicts. The objective is to eventually have an assistant that would take over the in-vehicle execution of multiple tasks and controls.
Rivian’s internal team in Palo Alto, which is basically a local think tank, came up with the idea for the assistant to ICT (information and communication technology) systems to be the vehicle systems.
Rivian’s move to AI assistant also aligns with the company’s broader plan to improve vertical integration. In 2024, the automaker did a major makeover of its flagship electric truck (R1T) and SUV (R1S), whose battery pack, suspension, sensors and software architecture were completely changed. The new assistant is a natural progression of those initiatives.
The enterprise yet has not committed to a schedule publicizing when the in-car assistant will be sufficiently prepared to appear at real-world driving scenarios. Bensaid informed the media early this year that they were aiming for a year-end rollout, but Rivian has not embraced that with certainty.
Rivian’s efforts to the assistant AI are indicative of the crucial change happening in the automotive industry, which is the emphasis on AI as the major factor that sets the companies apart rather than mere hardware. As the pace of improvement of foundational AI models is quite fast, a lot of car manufacturers are in a frenzy to either create their own software infrastructures or incorporate external models. Apparently, Rivian is determined to have total control over this creative process.
By building its own assistant, Rivian will be capable of enabling vehicle automation with greater depth, designing more personalized user experiences, and gaining more control over software updates and data privacy. Were it to succeed, this could open the door for other EV manufacturers to imitate them.
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