Rivian is laying down an aggressive roadmap for its advanced driver assistance software as it prepares for a massive year of vehicle scaling. Following the launch of the official R2 order configurator and the start of mass production at the Normal, Illinois, plant, Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid held a live Reddit AMA focused on the R2 software platform.
While the session largely focused on standard software features — including plans for an Apple-style curated app ecosystem with third-party developers pitching in — the biggest news regarding autonomy came when James Philbin, Rivian's SVP of Autonomy and AI, stepped in to answer a community question.
Universal Hands-Free Phase 2 Revealed
When a user inquired about how Autonomy+ capabilities would scale across future builds, Philbin took over the thread to outline a major two-step software rollout plan.
"Customers who purchase the R2 Launch Package will have access to our Autonomy+ package included for the lifetime of their vehicle, and will see incredible features roll out to their vehicles over time starting with Universal Hands-Free Phase 2 which adds sophisticated stop sign and traffic light control. Later this year we will start the rollout of point-to-point driving to R2 and R1 Gen2 vehicles," Philbin confirmed on Reddit.
While Philbin did not provide an exact launch date for the intersection controls, the timeline implies it will arrive shortly after initial R2 deliveries begin later this spring, acting as the foundation for the point-to-point Level 2 autonomy architecture dropping toward winter.
Catching Up to the Competition
Enabling the vehicle to recognize and comply with street signs and red lights is a major step forward. These details reinforce the long-term autonomy roadmap previously outlined by CEO RJ Scaringe, which aims to deliver an eyes-on, hands-off point-to-point experience where the car can navigate a destination from start to finish by the end of this year.
By pushing these features over-the-air to both the R2 and current R1 Gen 2 models, Rivian’s Autonomy+ suite could rapidly close the functional gap with industry benchmarks like Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system.
