Rivian Bets Big With New AI Chip and Lidar

Bloomberg

Watch Rivian Bets Big With New AI Chip and Lidar - Bloomberg on Dailymotion

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00:00Rivian's developed its own artificial intelligence chip for its future cars.

00:07That gamble might pave the way to fully autonomous driving.

00:14A lot of the tech world imagines a future where we don't own cars at all.

00:18We're talking about fleets of robo-taxis that are summoned through an app,

00:21maybe no steering wheel or driver controls at all.

00:24But Rivian's in the camp that does see people owning their own cars in the future

00:28and being willing to pay top dollar for a software platform that allows the car to drive itself.

00:34If this idea seems familiar, Tesla has been selling a version of it for years.

00:40Full self-driving supervised is not technically full autonomy if you read the fine print,

00:45but it can get you from point A to point B without needing to put your hands on the steering wheel.

00:54Rivian's path to autonomy is rooted in two big bets.

00:57The first, a custom AI chip developed in-house, which marks a big break from NVIDIA.

01:03This is a RAP1 chip. It's a multi-chip module.

01:06In the middle is a Rivian-designed custom silicon surrounded by memory on two sides.

01:12The decision to build an in-house was based on a very rigorous analysis of the benefits we could come.

01:18And those benefits are velocity or ability to get to market very quickly with it, performance and cost.

01:24The second, a major change in how Rivian vehicles see the world.

01:29The next generation Rivian R2 will have indented LiDAR sensors in it.

01:33It's not just about the computer, it's also about the sensors and it's about how they all come together.

01:38What the Gen 3 architecture does with compute levels that are dramatically expanded.

01:47So just to put some numbers to this, at the platform level, 1600 sparse tops,

01:52where you can process 5 billion pixels per second, beautifully integrated LiDAR.

01:56That raises the ceiling to allow us to take your eyes off the road.

02:01This will cause some debate.

02:03Tesla vehicles only use cameras as sensors for their systems.

02:08And what Elon Musk's company has always argued is that other sensors like LiDAR or radar are too expensive to scale.

02:16Until now, Rivian didn't really have an autonomous system.

02:19It had advanced driver assistance tools powered by cameras and radar.

02:23And Rivian used NVIDIA chips as the brain in the vehicle to interpret the world around it.

02:28Rivian says its new AI model will keep improving those older cars too,

02:32eventually adding capabilities like hands-off point-to-point driving.

02:37Rivian doing its own chip and ditching NVIDIA is a surprise.

02:40On the Rivian processor side, this represents a significant cost savings to us.

02:46There is a lot of margin, of course, in the semiconductor space.

02:50And working directly with TSMC, we have a great relationship with them.

02:54The new hardware is the unlock.

02:56It should allow Rivian to go from that driver assistance software in its existing lineup

03:01to true autonomy in the next-gen R2.

03:04The next big step is personal level 4.

03:06And what I mean is the vehicle can operate empty.

03:08It can operate without anyone in the driver's seat.

03:11It can pick your kids up from school.

03:13It can drop you at the airport.

03:14It's a complete shift in how we think about the vehicle experience.

03:19Looking back, this was the company that pulled off the sixth largest IPO in U.S. history.

03:24And it was first to market with full-size battery electric pickups and SUVs,

03:29beating out Tesla, Ford, and General Motors.

03:33But today, Rivian's struggling with the basics.

03:35Production of its EVs hasn't really scaled.

03:38Rivian's sole plant in Illinois is capable of building 250,000 units a year.

03:44But in 2025, it probably won't hit 50,000.

03:47The truest representation of that struggle, the stock, is at a fraction of its peak.

03:52Right now in the world of tech, you have to have something to say about AI.

03:58And Rivian is diving deep into autonomy to appease its investors.

04:03An AI chip, LiDAR, and a large driving model.

04:07Right now it's a promise from Rivian that their next generation vehicles will have genuine autonomous capabilities.

04:14Transcription by CastingWords

04:17Minotivines

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