From The Duke of Middleville.

Tesla has dominated the autonomy conversation for years — but after attending Rivian Autonomy Day, I’m not convinced that lead is safe anymore.

Here are my two biggest takeaways 👇

🚗 Rivian Ditches Alexa for Its Own AI Assistant
Rivian is replacing third-party voice assistants with a fully in-house AI system built specifically for their vehicles. This isn’t just about better voice commands — it’s about deep vehicle control, faster learning, and an experience Alexa could never deliver. This matters big time for the upcoming R2.

🧠 LiDAR + AI = A Faster Path to Level 4?
Tesla rejected LiDAR. Rivian embraced it.
The Rivian R2 will combine LiDAR, 11 cameras, 5 radars, and a new dual 800-TOPS AI compute stack — a hardware and software combo designed from day one for autonomy. I explain why this approach may allow Rivian to reach Level 4 autonomy sooner than Tesla.

Is Tesla still winning the autonomy race… or did Rivian just close the gap way faster than anyone expected?

#Rivian #RivianR2 #AutonomyDay #TeslaFSD #AutonomousDriving #EVTech #AI #ElectricVehicles