Rivian has spent two years building its own AI assistant, an effort that remains separate from its billion-dollar technology joint venture with Volkswagen, TechCranch has learned.
Rivian has yet to announce when it will introduce its AI assistant to consumers. However, in an interview earlier this year, the Head of software Rivian that Tech Tools told Techcrunch, is the end of the year target. This company will be more happy in the future Day and AI autonomythat will live STEAVER Starting at 9 AM PT 11.
Rivian’s plan is reflective of the moment as the pace of development of the company, the technology giant and the start-up, which is Meta, accelerates the core model – accelerates and the industry can be saved.
But as bensaid noted to TechCrunch earlier this year, this isn’t a slapdash attempt to stay on trend. Nor are Chatbots the only ones thrown into infotainment systems. The company has put thought, resources, and time into the product, Bensaid said, noting that it is designed for all vehicle controls.
The company started with an underlying philosophy of building a holistic architecture that is model and platform agnostic, according to Benssaid. The Rivian Ai Assistant team, which is based in the company’s Palo Alto Office, with immediate effort and attention should be directed to developing a software layer that helps create control logic as well as control controls that resolve conflicts.
“And the in-vehicle platform that has been built,” Bensaid said. “We use what the industry currently calls the agent framework; but we thought about the architecture from the beginning so that we could interface with different models.”
The AI Assistant program is consistent with Rivian’s decline into more vertical integration. In 2024, Rivian Beat the flagship r1t truck and R1s SUVchanging everything from the battery and suspension system to the electrical architecture, sensor stack, and software user interface.
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The company has also increased its resources to develop its own software stack, which includes everything related to the real-time operating system (such as the thermal layer, as well as other layers related to the infotainment system.
Bensaid did not provide detailed information about the AI assistant, but he said it includes a mix of models that handle specific tasks. The result is a hybrid software stack that combines the edge, where tasks are handled on the device, and the AI cloud, which includes a model that requires more computing to be handled by servers.
This should mean something flexible, specifically that speeds up work between the edge and the cloud.
Rivian develops various AI software stacks in-house, including its own special models and “orkortration layer,” cop conctor or cop traffic from various AI models can work together. Another point of Rivian is the AI function of the agent.
The mission is to develop AI assistants that increase trust and engagement, Bensaid said.
For now, the AI assistant remains at Rivian. The company’s joint venture with Volkswagen has focused on software, but not AI assistants or anything that needs to be automated.
Technology Joint Venture With Volkswagen, announced in 2024 and is worth up to $5.8 billioncentral to the underlying electrical architecture and zonal computing, and infotainment. The joint venture was officially launched in November 2024 and is expected to provide Volkswagen architecture and software for the Volkswagen Group from 2027.
Autonomy and AI are separate now, but “That doesn’t mean it can’t happen in the future,” Bensaid said.

