Rivian, the electric vehicle manufacturer, has announced plans to launch a hands-off driver assistance system for highway driving in the coming weeks, with a fully autonomous "eyes-off" version expected to debut in 2026. This move marks a significant milestone in the company's autonomy ambitions, which have taken a backseat in recent years as Rivian focused on completing its IPO and launching three different vehicles.

The hands-off system will allow Rivian to compete with companies like Ford and General Motors, which have both launched similar systems in the past few years. Ford's BlueCruise and GM's SuperCruise systems also enable hands-free driving on highways. Notably, Tesla's Full Self-Driving (supervised) system, despite its name, still requires users to keep their hands on the wheel.

Rivian's announcement comes as the company forecasts another challenging year, driven in part by uncertainty around regulatory policy changes under the Trump Administration. However, the company has made significant progress in recent years, posting its first positive gross profit in the fourth quarter of 2024. This achievement was buoyed by a company-wide cost-cutting effort in 2024, as well as an increase in software and services revenue.

Rivian's autonomy ambitions were first showcased in 2018, when CEO RJ Scaringe envisioned scenarios where Rivian owners could start a hike and have their vehicles drive autonomously to meet them at the finish. While autonomy took a backseat in recent years, Rivian has now established a solid foundation, having built and delivered around 50,000 vehicles in the past two years. The company's major deal with Volkswagen, finalized late last year, has also provided the necessary breathing room to focus on rolling out features like the hands-off system.

Rivian is training its driver assistance platform using an "end-to-end" training approach, similar to Tesla's method. This involves using data from cameras and radar sensors to train the models that power its driver-assistance system, rather than relying on hard-coded rules. Initially, the hands-off feature will only be available on highways, but CEO RJ Scaringe plans to gradually expand the system to other types of roads once the eyes-off version launches in 2026.

Scaringe envisions a future where hands-free, eyes-off driving is possible "essentially everywhere." To achieve this, Rivian is exploring creative ways to access a substantial amount of GPUs (graphics processing units) without having to deploy significant capital expenditures. This approach differs from Tesla's strategy, which involves investing billions of dollars in GPUs.

The launch of Rivian's hands-off driver assistance system marks a significant step towards achieving full autonomy. As the company continues to advance its technology, it will be interesting to see how it competes with established players in the autonomous vehicle space. With its eyes set on a fully autonomous future, Rivian is poised to make a significant impact on the industry in the years to come.