Rivian Autonomy & AI Day! Lidar, Hands-Free Driving, Rivian Assistant & more announced

[hekhl00]

If Rivian doesn't make it in the long run, I wonder what the postmortem will look like in business school. Will it be that they pushed the tech too far while losing sight of the fundamentals like dependability, quality and service? For me, this car and this company just feels like too much of an experiment. I love the way it drives but I've grown weary of the constant "what's next" and how many bugs will it have when it comes to updates. I expect that from a laptop, but I don't want it in my car.

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[McLovin]

No bounce from this yet:

Delayed bounce?

 

[Jeff B.]

RJ is a dreamer and an Engineer, both of which are great when it cones to pushing the limits of technology and design. However, as a fellow engineer and business owner, I can attest to the fact that he will never be able to put his pencil down and stop being an engineer. As a CEO, this might be seen as negative because it is a constant distraction from focusing on the key metrics of running Rivian as a business. I may be in the minority, but I still think he is a great CEO and manages a good balance of the engineering and business side of what it takes to position Rivian as a long term player. Time will tell.

 

[Yota2R1T]

Delayed bounce?

Was going to say... Looks like more investors caught the webcast later in the evening. Go RIVN!!

 

[mkg3]

Delayed bounce?

Two things. There is a story about Rivian robotaxi and upgraded price target:

"Needham analyst Chris Pierce maintains Rivian Automotive (RIVN) with a Buy and raises the price target from $14 to $23."

 

[Jeff B.]

Delayed bounce?

I didn't see that bounce yet this morning. Let's see if that holds and gains some momentum before R2 deliveries.

 

[SarahsDad]

Delayed bounce?

Yeah I thought the drop yesterday was excessive concern for Osborning the R2 (they could discount the initial R2s if the Gen 3 sensor suite isn't ready by launch). I got in yesterday when the stock was down around 8%. After watching the live stream, it's clear to me that Rivian has bigger aspirations than I realized. I started investing in TSLA in 2013 and that worked out OK. Rivian reminds me of the early days of Tesla. I see big upward potential from here (although may never reach its post-IPO all time high of ~179 ).

 

[AlphaSnowbordergirl]

RJ is a dreamer and an Engineer, both of which are great when it cones to pushing the limits of technology and design. However, as a fellow engineer and business owner, I can attest to the fact that he will never be able to put his pencil down and stop being an engineer. As a CEO, this might be seen as negative because it is a constant distraction from focusing on the key metrics of running Rivian as a business. I may be in the minority, but I still think he is a great CEO and manages a good balance of the engineering and business side of what it takes to position Rivian as a long term player. Time will tell.

I agree. Too many businesses have "business men" in the driver seat and the products always feel lack luster or have a lack of passion behind them, while trying to take as much from consumers as possible. RJ loves this company and is trying to do what is best for the company while doing his best for consumers. It is unfortunate, but I think some pushes is because he needs to keep the company afloat.

I also think Rivian is so agressive because they have to be. Tech moves too fast. Just look at the people on this thread who say their R1s are outdated simply because it won't have autonomy (Gen1 and Gen2). It isn't even about the vehicle anymore. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here thinking, "didn't you want a cool car/truck though to do car/truck things? Autonomy doesn't change it from being a good car. And even on youtube with the R2 announcement videos you have people criticizing rivian for lack of FSD (mostly tesla fanboys but still surprised how many people say "maybe if it had FSD"). Rivian has to push into this while improving reliability, quality, and service centers out as quickly as possible. If they wait, the company will die. Especially with the EV doubting going on recently. They are playing against established auto companies that have the capital to move faster than them if they wanted too. They can't pray that OEMs keep taking their sweet time while China finds ways around the American tarriffs/ban.

Either way, if RJ is kicked out and a more business-minded man who only care about profits pops up. I'll probably cancel my order. I like Rivian for what it is now. I like their passion for cars, the environment, and trying to do good around them. Do I want AI, not really, but I understand why they are pushing for it.

 

[mkhuffman]

Delayed bounce?

Nice!!! I was not watching it this morning.

Now my RIVN holding is only down 44%!!! Rock and Roll Tidewater!

 

[savethemanual]

I get it, every automaker needs to have at least one foot into the self driving and AI hype right now. But I would also love to see this company have world class charging speeds and efficiency with their next product, I sure hope they're dedicating R&D into this too.

 

[Yota2R1T]

I agree. Too many businesses have "business men" in the driver seat and the products always feel lack luster, have a lack of passion behind them, while trying to take as much from consumers as possible. RJ loves this company and is trying to do what is best for the company while doing his best for consumers. It is unfortunate, but I think some pushes as because he needs to keep the company afloat.

I also think Rivian is so agressive is because they have to be. Tech moves too fast. Just look at the people on this thread who say their R1s are outdated simply because it won't have autonomy (Gen1 and Gen2). It isn't even about the vehicle anymore. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here thinking, "didn't you want a cool car/truck though to do car/truck things? Autonomy doesn't change it from being a good car. And even on youtube with the R2 announcement videos you have people criticizing rivian for lack of FSD (mostly tesla fanboys but still surprised how many people say "maybe if it had FSD"). Rivian has to push into this while improving reliability, quality, and service centers out as quickly as possible. If they wait, the company will die. Especially with the EV doubting going on recently. They are playing against established auto companies that have the capital to move faster than them if they wanted too. They can't pray that OEMs keep taking their sweet time while China finds ways around the American tarriffs/ban.

Either way, if RJ is kicked out and a more business man who only care about profits pops up. I'll probably cancel my order. I like Rivian for what it is now. I like their passion for cars, the environment, and trying to do good around them. Do I want AI, not really, but I understand why they are pushing for it.

100% agree with this.
Except I don't have a pony (order) in the R2 game.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

RJ is a dreamer and an Engineer, both of which are great when it cones to pushing the limits of technology and design. However, as a fellow engineer and business owner, I can attest to the fact that he will never be able to put his pencil down and stop being an engineer. As a CEO, this might be seen as negative because it is a constant distraction from focusing on the key metrics of running Rivian as a business. I may be in the minority, but I still think he is a great CEO and manages a good balance of the engineering and business side of what it takes to position Rivian as a long term player. Time will tell.

I agree with what you said about RJ being a dreamer and an engineer. He has excellent founder energy. What makes a good leader is the ability to build a team to realize your vision. You can't know every aspect, and to run a company as complex as a car company, you need experts across many fields, including legal, marketing, accounting, finance, and manufacturing.

RJ has built a pretty good team around him, judging by the quality of Rivian's business decisions and my interactions with Rivian staff. Most of the staff I've dealt with personally seems to agree that Rivian is a good place to work. In my professional experience, I have found employee satisfaction and morale to be good indicators of how well a company is run internally.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

RJ is a dreamer. And as a founder, it's a prerequisite. It's almost moot to compare him to you-know-who as he has more than demonstrated to have far more discipline and self-restraint. RJ dreams but remains focused and grounded to the company's goals. And while countless interviewers have tried to goad him to speak ill of competitors, he's refrained from taking the bait.

 

[COdogman]

Now taking bets on the next username?

He's pretty good at inventing a new profile, name. He's less good at creating a new personality with different behavior

 

[BrianB]

That's true for some people. There will always be some people that need the latest & greatest thing.

The type of person that keeps a car for ~10 years doesn't really care. Neither do the people who don't care to pay some subscription fee for self-driving whatever.

With Tesla's uptake of FSD reportedly in the ~15% range, I'm skeptical this is a market that will have mass consumer adoption without dramatically lower prices. Tesla consumers are among the most tech-interested of any brand.

Tesla charges $8000 for FSD. RIvian is at $2500. Prices are falling, hardware ready vehicle counts are growing and adoption will too.

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