Rivian promises to bring hands-free driving in the following weeks

During an earnings call, following the Q4 2024 report, Rivian's CEO had some good news to share. First, the company recorded its first "positive gross profit", and secondly, he teased a new hands-free driving feature for US highways.

Rivian's founder and CEO, R.J. Scaringe, said that the company will release a new feature that would allow drivers to enjoy a hands-free driving experience on the highway. Currently, Rivian's trucks support basic features such as adaptive cruise control and lane centering. With those turned on, the vehicle can accelerate, steer, keep lanes and brake, but only when the driver keeps their hands on the steering wheel.

With the launch of the new feature, drivers will no longer be required to keep their hands on the wheel. This elevates Rivian's advanced driver system to the levels of General Motors' Super Cruise and Ford's BlueCruise.

Additionally, Scaringe promised to bring eyes-off driving features in 2026, which are pretty rare at the moment. These are classified as Level 3 drive assistance and for now, only Mercedes' Drive Pilot has the clearance for specific US and German highways.

It's important to note that both the hands-off and eyes-off driving systems will be allowed only on certain highways and in certain conditions. Rivian's CEO promised to begin gradual expansion and support more roads in the future.

It's unclear whether all models will support said features, but the CEO mentioned that second-generation R1T and R1S have plenty of headroom when it comes to computational capabilities and sensors to support ADAS.

Via