Rivian Licenses Its AI Assistant to Volkswagen

Rivian Assistant is heading to Volkswagen. According to a report from TechCrunch, Rivian’s Q3 investor presentation confirms that it’s now licensing parts of its AI voice assistant technology to Volkswagen Group as part of the two companies’ joint venture.

Rivian didn’t reveal licensing fees, payment terms, or which VW models will get the assistant. Instead, it called the expansion “a proof point for the extensibility of the platform we’ve built in-house.”

From Rivian’s Lineup to Volkswagen’s

Rivian Assistant has only been in Rivian’s own vehicles for a few months. It launched on the R1S and R1T in May and arrived on the R2 with an over-the-air update in October. Rivian software chief Wassym Bensaid had said earlier this spring that Rivian was in talks to bring the assistant to the VW joint-venture vehicles, and now it’s official.

Volkswagen

The first VW with Rivian tech will be the ID.1, originally unveiled as the ID.EVERY1, which is on track to launch next year. That makes it a likely first candidate for the assistant, though neither company has confirmed it. Bensaid will be test-driving the ID.1 over the Halloween weekend and said it has an “incredibly exciting” amount of tech for its low price point.

The JV Keeps Growing

VW first announced plans to invest up to $5 billion in Rivian in June 2024, and the deal later grew to $5.8 billion. It was built around a joint venture to bring Rivian’s zonal electronic architecture and software to VW’s next-gen vehicles. Adding Rivian Assistant into the mix gives Rivian a licensing stream that can grow with every VW sold.

The news also comes days after a report claimed VW might use its Xpeng-developed China software instead of Rivian’s for some European models. Bensaid pushed back on the report, saying the partnership is going “incredibly well” and the JV roadmap hasn’t changed. Expanding the deal to include AI backs up that claim.

With the ID.1 expected to launch next year, we should soon see how much of Rivian Assistant makes it into an affordable Volkswagen.