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Rivian has spent nearly two years building its own AI assistant, an effort that remains separate from its multi-billion dollar technology joint venture with Volkswagen, TechCrunch has learned.
Rivian hasn’t revealed when it will put the AI assistant in consumers hands. However, in an interview earlier this year, Rivian’s software chief Wassym Bensaid told TechCrunch it was targeting the end of the year. The company will likely share more during its upcoming AI and Autonomy day, which will be live streamed starting at 9 am PT December 11.
Rivian’s plans are reflective of the moment as the pace of development from foundational AI companies– the tech giants and startups like Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI that are building the core models and infrastructure — accelerates and industries scramble to keep up.
But as Bensaid noted to TechCrunch earlier this year, this isn’t some slapdash effort to stay on trend. Nor is it simply a chatbot thrown into the infotainment system. The company has put considerable thought, resources, and time into the product, Bensaid said, noting that its designed to be integrated with all vehicle controls.
The company started with an underlying philosophy to build an overall architecture that is model and platform agnostic, according to Bensaid. The Rivian AI assistant team, which is based out the company’s Palo Alto office, soon realized effort and attention should also be directed towards developing the software layers that help coordinate various workflows as well as the control logic that resolves conflicts.
“And that’s the in-vehicle platform we have built,” Bensaid said. “We use what the industry loves to now call an agentic framework; but we thought about that architecture since very early so that we can interface with different models.”
The in-house AI assistant program is consistent with Rivian’s push to become more vertically integrated. In 2024, Rivian overhauled its flagship R1T truck and R1S SUV, changing everything from the battery pack and suspension system to the electrical architecture, sensor stack, and software user interface.
The company has also put considerable resources towards developing and improving its own software stack, which includes everything related to real-time operating systems (RTOS) that manage the car, such as thermal dynamics, ADAS and safety systems, as well as another layer related to the infotainment system.
Bensaid didn’t provide detailed information about the AI assistant, but he did say it includes a mix of models that handle specific tasks. The result is a hybrid software stack that combines edge AI, where tasks are handled on the device, and cloud AI, in which large models that require more compute are handled by remote servers.
This should mean a flexible, customized AI assistant that splits the workload between the edge and cloud.
Rivian developed much of the AI software stack in house, including its own custom models and the “orchestration layer,” the conductor or traffic cop of sorts that makes sure the various AI models work together. Rivian tapped other companies for specific agentic AI functions.
The mission is to develop an AI assistant that increases customer trust and engagement, Bensaid said.
For now, the AI assistant is staying within Rivian. The company’s joint venture with Volkswagen is focused on software, but not an AI assistant or anything to do with automated driving.
The technology joint venture with Volkswagen, which was announced in 2024 and is worth up to $5.8 billion, is centered on the underlying electrical architecture and zonal compute, and infotainment. The joint venture officially kicked off in November 2024 and is expected to supply the electrical architecture and software for Volkswagen Group as early as 2027.
Autonomy and AI are separate for now, but “It doesn’t mean that it may not be in the future,” Bensaid said.
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