Rivian launches Tesla FSD competitor Autonomy+ at half price with custom AI chip and LiDAR in tow

Rivian has announced its answer to Tesla's FSD feature with an end-to-end solution called Autonomy+ that is priced at just $2,500, or $50/month as a subscription model.

Powered by homebrew RAP1 (Rivian Autonomy Processor) chips built on TSMC's 5nm process, its new self-driving hardware kit also includes 11 cameras, multiple radars, and even a LiDAR.

The RAP1 AI chip is tailored for vision-only autonomous driving and builds Rivian's next-gen Autonomy Compute Module 3 (ACM3) computer. Its specs include 1600 sparse INT8 TOPS, capable of processing 5 billion pixels every second.

Rivian also developed a RivLink interface technology that allows adding extra RAP1 chips for easier upgrades when the software advancements outrun the hardware capacity. The new Rivian Autonomy Platform software trains on an end-to-end data loop via a Large Driving Model dedicated to autonomous driving via Group-Relative Policy Optimization that "distills superior driving strategies from massive datasets into the vehicle."

The self-driving kit revolving around the custom RAP1 AI chip will first arrive on the R2 in 2026, but Rivian will still launch the Autonomy+ subscription model next quarter and simply add features to it as they become available. It will, for instance, update the second-gen R1 fleet with Universal Hands-Free assisted driving available for longer periods and on more than 3.5 million road miles in the US and Canada. 

Needless to say, at this price the Autonomy+ feature will be more limited than Tesla's $8,000 FSD, at least until the ACM3 self-driving computer kit becomes standard. The Universal Hands-Free option, for instance, needs "clearly painted lines" to work when not on highways. Rivian vowed to "continuously improve the autonomy capabilities of its Gen 2 R1 and future R2 vehicles" on the way to L4 autonomy, similar to Tesla's unsupervised FSD that its Robotaxi platform is built on.

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