Will Gen3 hardware be included with Launch Edition later?

[Eric9610]

Here is a crazy twist I have not seen anywhere.

They keep making P LE models for everyone that has a reservation. But the premium launches with HW3 and no LE. In theory they could make HW3 models and LE models at the same time. The cost would be the same to end user.

A premium with Paint, Autonomy + and 21's is the exact same cost as a LE with Paint... This is exactly what Rivian will do...

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[rfkxyz]

My money is on no overlap between LE and Gen3.

you get either LE freebies OR Gen3 HW.

switch over to Gen3 before Dec 31?

I think the most likely case is that all MY27 vehicles (including all LE) will be Gen2.5 and all MY28 will be Gen3.

I’ll be curious to see if Gen3 arrives as MY27.5 with flip to MY28 in summer as usual, or early flip to MY28 in winter-spring 2026-27?

 

[Vik]

Rivian put themselves in this situation by not launching with Lidar. A similar situation happened with OG R1 reservation holders when Gen 2 came out. Rivian allowed reservation holders to buy Gen 2 with OG pricing. Of course a lot of Rivian Gen 1 owners were butthurt.

 

[ElGuano]

There's no chance. Rivian isn't claiming/promising any of the Lidar features/capabilities for launch R2, and there's significant body work and electrical changes needed for all the RAP hardware.

The "good news" is they've said the LIDAR setup will be at parity with the non-LIDAR for the first few years, so it's probably not until 2029 until you start seeing LIDAR-specific features.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

IMO, moot to speculate. But, if you're going to, safe bet is to think like the business (not with your consumer's POV)—i.e. what would Rivian's logic be? "Launch" is called that for people who want the car and want it now, to satisfy their need for instant sooner gratification and desire to be among firsts (sell cars now to bank money now and keep the lights on). If you want "Later Edition", with latest and greatest hardware... you probably won't be getting a Launch Edition. @CharonPDX gets it.

PS—"Later" is probably going to cost you more too. If Rivian says LiDAR unit cost them $300, for just the sensor hardware, typical industry mark-up at retail is at least 2x.

 

[rvnxyz001]

In their call with investors, they said that new hardware will be available at the end of 2026.

 

[Tony S]

IMO, moot to speculate. But, if you're going to, safe bet is to think like the business (not with your consumer's POV)—i.e. what would Rivian's logic be? "Launch" is called that for people who want the car and want it now, to satisfy their need for instant sooner gratification and desire to be among firsts (and sell cars now to bank money now). If you want "Later Edition", with latest and greatest hardware... you probably won't be getting a Launch Edition. @CharonPDX gets it.

PS—"Later" is probably going to cost you more too. If Rivian says LiDAR unit cost them $300, for just the sensor hardware, typical industry mark-up at retail is at least 2x.

The invite to order is coming Nov-Dec with delivery 4-8 weeks. Will wait a few months to get RAP1/LiDAR just to be current with hardware; don’t care about self driving.

 

[R24U]

Rivan.com AI has this to say "Rivian plans to begin internal testing of LiDAR and the Gen 3 autonomy platform in late 2026. Broader customer availability will follow as production ramps up, but there isn’t a specific date yet for when customers will be able to order vehicles with LiDAR and Gen 3 hardware. If you’re hoping to get these features this year, they likely won’t be available for customer orders by November or December.” and also: "here isn’t a set date for when LiDAR and Gen 3 autonomy will be available on customer vehicles—including the Launch Edition. Rivian is starting internal testing of LiDAR-equipped vehicles in late 2026, and broader customer access will follow as production ramps up. So, if you’re hoping to get the Launch Edition with LiDAR and Gen 3, it’s not expected to be an option at launch or in the near term."

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

don’t care about self driving.

Then it doesn't matter when LiDAR is available does it? Plus, it's been beaten to death, Autonomy performance between gen2 and gen3 will be practically the same for many years to come. Primary and more immediate objective to put LiDAR on a portion of production cars is to crowd source ground-truth data—in order to train their Large Driving Model—and catch up to other more mature autonomy platforms of competitors.

 

[FlyingPilot2012]

If I were the Rivian CEO, here would be my inner ramblings:

---------------------------------
"The R2 is a make it or break it product for my company. We are either about to go mainstream, or this is the beginning of the end for Rivian.

We barely made the launch window for the R2. We had some hardware sourcing hiccups and, regrettably, we are selling the R2 with lower spec hardware than I intended. But shareholders and customers are pleased we met the timeline we promised, and early indicators show the R2 is a hit - even without this extra hardware.

To meet demand, we've promised to continue delivering Launch Editions (LE) through February 2027. Customers are a little impatient, but thrilled that LE will still be available for them.

I've also told customers and shareholders many times that Gen3 hardware will release by the end of 2026. We cannot miss this deadline. Pushing Gen3 to 2027 is not an option.

It doesn't make sense to produce two body/hardware variants at the same time. For efficiency, we need to make a clean break on the production line. The best way to honor the LE reservations is to offer the last 5-10k LE with LIDAR/RAP1 included, alongside the other perks (Autonomy+, Towing Package, etc.). While I'm going to loose some money on these cars, it's very minor, and I'm far more interested in meeting the 2026 deadline for Gen3. Anything else would rock shareholder (and customer) confidence, which is critical at this time.

Some customers might be a little upset that that they missed out on the LE with the LIDAR/RAP1, but I never said that the LEs would exclude this hardware. I DID say that LIDAR/RAP1 were coming in 2026, and I'm sticking to it.
---------------------------------

In summary, I don't think Rivian cares about a small number of customers getting extra goodies if it means they meet production timeline goals.

I'm probably wrong, but it was fund to pretend I'm a CEO .

 

[DuoRivian]

If I were the Rivian CEO, here would be my inner ramblings:

---------------------------------
"The R2 is a make it or break it product for my company. We are either about to go mainstream, or this is the beginning of the end for Rivian.

We barely made the launch window for the R2. We had some hardware sourcing hiccups and, regrettably, we are selling the R2 with lower spec hardware than I intended. But shareholders and customers are pleased we met the timeline we promised, and early indicators show the R2 is a hit - even without this extra hardware.

To meet demand, we've promised to continue delivering Launch Editions (LE) through February 2027. Customers are a little impatient, but thrilled that LE will still be available for them.

I've also told customers and shareholders many times that Gen3 hardware will release by the end of 2026. We cannot miss this deadline. Pushing Gen3 to 2027 is not an option.

It doesn't make sense to produce two body/hardware variants at the same time. For efficiency, we need to make a clean break on the production line. The best way to honor the LE reservations is to offer the last 5-10k LE with LIDAR/RAP1 included, alongside the other perks (Autonomy+, Towing Package, etc.). While I'm going to loose some money on these cars, it's very minor, and I'm far more interested in meeting the 2026 deadline for Gen3. Anything else would rock shareholder (and customer) confidence, which is critical at this time.

Some customers might be a little upset that that they missed out on the LE with the LIDAR/RAP1, but I never said that the LEs would exclude this hardware. I DID say that LIDAR/RAP1 were coming in 2026, and I'm sticking to it.
---------------------------------

In summary, I don't think Rivian cares about a small number of customers getting extra goodies if it means they meet production timeline goals.

I'm probably wrong, but it was fund to pretend I'm a CEO .

If he said that then very few would buy an LE now and instead wait for LE with RAP

 

[FlyingPilot2012]

If he said that then very few would buy an LE now and instead wait for LE with RAP

Probably.

But what if they wait to announce it until just prior to the transition. Imagine an early November announcement saying: "All production models starting December 1st will be equipped with LIDAR/RAP1. Customers placing orders for any R2 variant after November 30th will receive LIDAR/RAP1."

Some will still delay ordering, but I feel that is unavoidable no matter how you slice it.

Early LE purchases would be upset they missed a sweet transition deal with some LEs having LIDAR/RAP1. But at the end of the day, they received exactly what they ordered, and Rivian is keeping their word by launching Gen3 by the end of 2026.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Early LE purchases would be upset they missed a sweet transition deal with some LEs having LIDAR/RAP1. But at the end of the day, they received exactly what they ordered, and Rivian is keeping their word by launching Gen3 by the end of 2026.

If any of them are upset, then they are not being "grown-up" enough about their decisions and resulting consequences. Just like any tech laden consumer product, there is always newer/better over the horizon. It's unintelligent to not recognize that reality, commit for sake of instant gratification and then choose to be upset about the inevitable consequent. That, is not Rivian's (or any OEMs') problem. That's a individual actions/personal responsibilities problem.

It's a manufacturers' problem when they sell a bunch of cars on the [written and published] premise that all of those cars would have Level 3 autonomy, but then never make good on it in order to pivot to a different autonomy platform (pointing to looming class action suit against Rivian, over what they did to gen1 customers).

 

[rvnxyz001]

Just like any tech laden consumer product, there is always newer/better over the horizon. It's unintelligent to not recognize that reality, commit for sake of instant gratification and then choose to be upset about the inevitable.

I think this is different from the usual "there is always newer tech coming" argument.

That argument works when the next model gets a better chip or better sensors a year later. Fine, that is normal.

This feels more like Apple saying:

"We are launching an expensive new iPhone with our next-gen camera and AI photo system. The phone is designed for it, but the first units will not have the new lens or the new image chip yet. The old camera and old chip are still good though. We will give you Camera+ for free, plus a free case. The real hardware is coming soon, and maybe the software will work almost the same on both, but we are not really going to make that clear."

That is a messy launch in my opinion...

I personally do not even care much about autonomy, because Rivian has not earned that level of trust from me yet on software. What I do care about is resale value.

Rivian is clearly trying to soften the blow for early buyers with Autonomy+ and the hitch/tow package. That is nice, but I do not think it makes up for the bigger issue. If later R2s get LiDAR and the new chips, the early no-LiDAR cars may instantly look like the "old hardware" version.

Used buyers will notice that. And I think the depreciation hit could easily be bigger than the value of the free extras. Especially it will be hard to sell that old hardware car has autonomy+ but it is not as capable as new hardware

Unfortunately, I think Rivian screwed up the R2 launch here. The car may still be good, but launching right before a known hardware upgrade puts the depreciation risk on early buyers.

But it all doesn't matter if you are leasing it

 

[ripple]

If any of them are upset, then they are not being "grown-up" enough about their decisions and resulting consequences. Just like any tech laden consumer product, there is always newer/better over the horizon. It's unintelligent to not recognize that reality, commit for sake of instant gratification and then choose to be upset about the inevitable consequent. That, is not Rivian's (or any OEMs') problem. That's a individual actions/personal responsibilities problem.

FWIW this is about where I am.
I have an LE e-mail that says I should expect to be invited to order in Oct/Nov but also says " R2 Performance with Launch Package will remain available for you until it's your time to order."

Given that we have RJ setting investor expectations that Gen3 hardware will be available by EOY, and other folks having the same "will remain available" stanza when they're not expected to be invited to order until Feb 2027, I think it's likely that LEs will be available at some point with Gen3 - but TBH I am going to kick that can down the road as long as possible since I just foolishly leased an EV6 in late May (24 months) back when I figured that the earliest I'd be able to order with a Feb 2026 reservation was maybe this time next year. (Love the EV6 but it's not an R2, and Kia's very uninterested in ending my lease early.)

I also would not be entirely surprised if @Eric9610 was correct in predicting:
" They keep making [Performance] LE models for everyone that has a reservation. But the Premium [becomes available] with HW3." But I think it's more likely that since Performance trim -will- get LiDAR and RAP at some point, if things fall into place then there will be some later LEs with Gen3.

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