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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Daniel Zlatev – Senior Tech Writer – 1994 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2021

Wooed by tech since the industrial espionage of Apple computers and the times of pixelized Nintendos, Daniel went and opened a gaming club when personal computers and consoles were still an expensive rarity. Nowadays, fascination is not with specs and speed but rather the lifestyle that computers in our pocket, house, and car have shoehorned us in, from the infinite scroll and the privacy hazards to authenticating every bit and move of our existence.