I think RJ was trying to distance himself from Tesla and the term FSD. He has said repeatedly that the plan was always to expand Rivian’s ADAS capabilities but he only wanted to do fully autonomous if he could do it safely unlike Tesla who full sends it and lets their drivers play crash test dummy to advance their software.
Ultimately, they're different products meant for different people and different goals. Tesla and rivian are targeting full autonomy in all situations. On the highway, all of the systems perform similarly enough that if that is your priority and only goal you're absolutely right! There's absolutely no reason to be paying an extra monthly subscription for that. The real differentiator is City driving. This is where Tesla FSD is unparalleled by any other system, and that is what people pay the fee for. And many, many do. But that sort of autonomy is not important for everyone, and if you're not in that camp, then comma is 100% the way to go.
Again, I think this is hyperbole.
For most people, $25,000 over the life of a car is an idiotic cost for a driving assistant. So is $8,000.
Tesla is a second tier L2 system with a third tier chipset. That is a simple fact verified by Tesla itself. The list of companies that perform better than Tesla is extremely long and the NVIDIA video posted above has a pretty good list. The only difference is that Tesla put is beta software and under-powered hardware into the public in an unrestricted model (that has killed more than a dozen and injured 50). Again, Tesla has zero vehicles running zero miles of autonomous driving. There are several other comapnies actually operating autonomous vehicles on public roads.
You missed Phoenix, they have been here for a long time.In the medium/long run it won’t matter. I think it’s a mistake car OEMs will be able to monetize driving assistance software.
If anything, level 4/5 driving will make car ownership obsolete for many people.
Waymo will likely soon provide a couple hundred dollars/mo subscription for 1,000 mile/mo of travel. That will cover the cost of energy, wear/tear, insurance, etc. And the more people who subscribe will make it cheaper for everyone.
Car OEMs like Rivian will have a tough sell if services like Waymo take off.
Waymo is now allowed to operate in greater Bay Area, LA, and San Diego.
We'll see if that ends up panning out. Volvo just said it's going to start removing LIDAR from their EX90s and ES90s as it just ended their relationship with Luminar. I have a suspicion that, while it sounds good on paper, there just isn't an ROI that makes it make sense to keep including it on the cars.
To be accurate they only said they’re cutting ties with Luminar. That doesn’t mean they’re dropping LIDAR forever and altogether.
Rivian stopped shipping cabin cameras in gen1 vehicles but brought it back in gen2 in a better position and it's actually functional.
Volvos parent company, Zhejiang Geely, is still all in on LiDAR with the new Zeekr 9x having 5 LiDAR units.
Agree with you and why Comma is in my Rivians but most people aren't crazy like us and willing to install, have some growing pains, and learn with the system. They want from the factory which Tesla has delivered, finally. Would never pay the $8k but for the 2 months a year I need it, it is worth $200 for the year.
