Rivian has "no plans today" to bring LiDAR development in-house

[Mos Eisley]

Rivian Shares Near Record Winning Streak as CFO Talks R2, Autonomy

In this from Reuters Rivian's CFO discusses this recent stock surge for RIVN and other topics.

Speaking at the UBS 2026 Auto and Auto Tech Conference on Wednesday, McDonough also pushed back on a report that Rivian planned to bring LiDAR development in-house, calling it “more of an erroneous headline” with “no plans today” to do so.

She said Rivian had begun data collection in the markets where it plans to deploy autonomous vehicles with Uber, targeting “driver out” robotaxi operations in Miami and San Francisco in 2028.

This article discusses that further.

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[skyguyscott]

It’s an interesting article, Rivian seems to be keeping its LiDAR supplier a secret, denying that it’s China’s Robosense, while Robosense has all but fingered Rivian as a key customer.

I find it somewhat incredulous that Rivian continues to say that the LiDAR R2 will be shipping by the end of this year, a mere six months away, when reservation holders will not even be able to start to configure until June 9, with delivery presumably weeks, if not months after that. Ok

The article also seems to imply that LiDAR may be coming to R1 vehicle vehicles around the same time, which would be big news if true

 

[srkz]

It’s an interesting article, Rivian seems to be keeping its LiDAR supplier a secret, denying that it’s China’s Robosense, while Robosense has all but fingered Rivian as a key customer.

I find it somewhat incredulous that Rivian continues to say that the LiDAR R2 will be shipping by the end of this year, a mere six months away, when reservation holders will not even be able to start to configure until June 9, with delivery presumably weeks, if not months after that. Ok

The article also seems to imply that LiDAR may be coming to R1 vehicle vehicles around the same time, which would be big news if true

If you Ctrl+F "Rivian" in this prospectus from MicroVision, a lidar supplier, you'll find on page S-2 the quote

"On January 31, 2023, we completed the acquisition of certain assets of Ibeo Automotive Systems GmbH, which was founded in 1998 as a lidar hardware and software provider. Ibeo developed and launched the first lidar sensor to be automotive qualified for serial production with a Tier 1 automotive supplier and that is currently available in passenger cars by premium original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs. Ibeo developed software solutions, including perception and validation software, which are also used by premium OEMs. In addition, Ibeo sold its products for non-automotive uses such as industrial, smart infrastructure and robotics applications. Over its long history, Ibeo has made hundreds of millions of dollars of investments in its technology. Through the Ibeo acquisition, we added approximately 330 patents to our portfolio, certain of which are jointly owned. Ibeo has delivered its hardware or software technologies to customers and partners, including Audi, BMW, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Rivian, Stellantis, Valeo and Vinfast. "

Maybe the reason for the delay in lidar is because they switched from Robosense to MicroVision for one reason or another? Or maybe they're just keeping their options open and testing units from many different providers.

It's possible that they are or were using one supplier for the high resolution relatively high cost units on their lidar mules (penguins?) and another supplier for the relatively lower cost and more solid-state lidar on the R2.

 

[Mos Eisley]

The article also seems to imply that LiDAR may be coming to R1 vehicle vehicles around the same time, which would be big news if true

It'd certainly be coming to whenever the next significant refresh/redesign happens one would think.

 

[Killer95Stang]

I will say that my neighbor (Rivian Engineer guy) believes the R2's LIDAR is far enough in development, that he intends on waiting for it before he takes delivery of an R2. That's good enough for me to wait out a little longer. 900V architecture is probably not too far behind that.

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