R2 w/ LiDAR, 19-inch wheels spied

[Mos Eisley]

Here's the discussion on Reddit

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[rogunenode]

 

[Mos Eisley]

Does make one wonder if this gives hope to "late 2026" for Gen3 Lidar inclusion in builds... I mean, if the hardware is fully validated, even if not turned on, might they start including it soon. Who knows.

 

[tgrick]

Rivian has me ordering in the Sept-Oct time frame. Seriously wondering if I should just wait a few months more for Lidar? Tesla and a Chinese EV company have said no to Lidar, so I'm wondering what the best move is?

 

[Mos Eisley]

Rivian has me ordering in the Sept-Oct time frame. Seriously wondering if I should just wait a few months more for Lidar? Tesla and a Chinese EV company have said no to Lidar, so I'm wondering what the best move is?

The best answer is probably still "don't wait for what is unknown" - while this pic will reignite this discussion, it could just as well be that Gen3?Lidar might end up inbuilds in late '27.

If you are in no rush, sure, wait some indefinite period of time.

Rivian does face an issue of how/when they start including it and how customers are notified.
If my R2 shows up on 10/10/26 with LIDAR installed, and anybody that got theirs on 10/09 finds out and says WTF?

There's some weird moment when Rivian will have to be transparent and face a number of people wanting to delay their builds. Currently, I'm not waiting. But if they said, hey, do you want your order now or do you want to wait another six weeks?

They don't want to be stuck with lots of builds due to cancelled/change-orders for the new tech. Not sure how best to navigate this one.

 

[rfkxyz]

I wonder if we might see an early flip to MY28? Had assumed summer 2027 based on R2 history. Maybe ~Jan 2027?

 

[Jeremy3292]

They won't ship LIDAR units until LE trim is over IMO. Can't see them giving you LIDAR/RAP1 and LE package, which includes Autonomy+. They may have test mules for LIDAR already, but scaling production, getting parts in, and adding to lines seems unlikely til next year.

 

[rogunenode]

I'll likely wait for the LiDAR version. I've been burned by Tesla HW claims in the past. Missing out on the free lifetime Autonomy+ is a negative, though.

Has Rivian confirmed whether that is transferable if you sell the vehicle?

 

[emroch]

I think one of the Rivian engineers said LIDAR/RAP1 would be in the "next model year" which means 2027 debut. I agree that it is unlikely to overlap with LE, though I do wonder if we will see non-LIDAR Premium by the end of this year while the Performance is still wrapping up LE? Or maybe once Premium is available, they'll close new reservations and only current reservation holders can get the LE and others would get the regular Performance package?

 

[emroch]

Has Rivian confirmed whether that is transferable if you sell the vehicle?

Yes, Autonomy+ stays with the vehicle for the lifetime of the hardware support.

 

[emroch]

I'll likely wait for the LiDAR version. I've been burned by Tesla HW claims in the past. Missing out on the free lifetime Autonomy+ is a negative, though.

The LIDAR, while it will come standard in the future, is effectively a $2500 paid upgrade compared to the LE, because of the free Autonomy+. I don't think LIDAR will benefit you without Autonomy+, so by waiting you're effectively resigning yourself to pay $2500 more for hardware that may eventually provide an edge. It will take years before the vehicles with LIDAR/RAP1 can actually do anything the current Gen2.5 vehicles cannot also do.

(Note that Rivian has said the data from the LIDAR models will be used to improve the autonomy features on non-lidar models too. Its just a crowdsourcing strategy to gather more driving data for their AI training. And the non-RAP compute modules have plenty of headroom for the near-term.)

 

[rogunenode]

The LIDAR, while it will come standard in the future, is effectively a $2500 paid upgrade compared to the LE, because of the free Autonomy+. I don't think LIDAR will benefit you without Autonomy+, so by waiting you're effectively resigning yourself to pay $2500 more for hardware that may eventually provide an edge. It will take years before the vehicles with LIDAR/RAP1 can actually do anything the current Gen2.5 vehicles cannot also do.

(Note that Rivian has said the data from the LIDAR models will be used to improve the autonomy features on non-LiDAR models too. It's just a crowdsourcing strategy to gather more driving data for their AI training. And the non-RAP compute modules have plenty of headroom for the near-term.)

Of course, it will cost more to wait for LiDAR. I'm ok with that. As for promises that the non-LiDAR R2 will be just as good as the LiDAR version for many years. Well, we'll see. Tesla made similar promises and didn't deliver, and they are a leader in ADAS, so forgive me if I'm skeptical.

 

[emroch]

Tesla also went vision only and continues to lead in autonomy, so while I'm sure LIDAR will help push Rivian forward, its clearly not required to match Tesla. I do wonder if part of Tesla's decision to go vision only was because they already had so much training data from their LIDAR-equipped models and didn't need more.

 

[rogunenode]

Yes, Autonomy+ stays with the vehicle for the lifetime of the hardware support.

Thanks, that's great. Makes my decision to wait a bit more difficult

 

[srkz]

they already had so much training data from their LIDAR-equipped models and didn't need more.

Tesla has never had Lidar-equipped models, only a small fleet of mapping vehicles not for sale to customers.

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