Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
The automotive supplier Mobileye has been facing a tough week. After reporting disappointing earnings results for the second quarter and lowering its annual guidance, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe revealed that the company will no longer use their tech in the Gen-2 Rivian vehicles.
In an interview with “The InEVitable” podcast, Scaringe emphasized the limitations of Mobileye’s system for Rivian’s long-term goals in autonomy.
On Thursday, Mobileye shares crashed 22.48% percent to a new all time low of $16.28 per share.
“Gen 1 [R1T and R1S vehicles] had a collection of cameras. Importantly, the front-facing forward camera is a Mobileye-based system,” he noted.
“As a result of that, architecturally, it meant that we have a late fusion of information, because we take a camera that’s forward-facing from Mobileye that does a lot of processing, and it doesn’t give us RAW. The output of that is it detects objects, it classifies the objects, and assigns vectors to those objects,” Scaringe detailed.
The new Generation 2 (Gen 2) platform will feature a completely revamped camera system developed internally by Rivian, comprising 55 megapixels worth of cameras and five radars, including an imaging radar.
“Architecturally, that approach makes it very hard to use an AI-centric model, where you’re collectively using the full perception stack, having an early fusion, using more advanced AI training techniques to collectively assess from a perception point of view, what’s around you, and then using that to drive both the planning side, the path planning side, and then, of course, the controls. What went into Gen 2 is a whole new camera set. We have 55 megapixels of cameras.” the chief executive said.
With the in-house developed solution, Rivian will be able to increase by 10 times its compute power.
“We developed the cameras in-house. Five radars, including an imaging radar and the front-facing radar. Significantly more compute, about 10x the compute,” Scaringe stated.
“Moving away from Mobileye allows us to leverage early fusion and more advanced AI training techniques,” Scaringe said. This approach is expected to enhance the vehicle’s perception and path planning capabilities, paving the way for more sophisticated autonomous features in the future.
Despite this shift, Scaringe reassured current Rivian owners that their Gen 1 vehicles would continue to receive improvements.
“The Gen 1 platform is going to continue to get better, so don’t worry, your car will still get better,” he stated. However, he highlighted that the Gen 2 platform has significantly more potential for rapid advancements.
The switch to Nvidia’s Drive Orin platform represents a major upgrade, with the system boasting up to 240 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of compute power.
Scaringe highlighted that the change is part of Rivian’s effort to streamline its vehicle architecture, reducing the number of electronic control units (ECUs) from 17 to 7 and significantly cutting down on wiring and weight.
Last week, Rivian announced that its Chief Commercial Officer and President for Business Growth, Dr. Kjell Gruner, has resigned less than one year after joining the company.
The company has recently updated its Canadian website to reveal the pricing for its upcoming, smaller, and more affordable R2 model.
The new model will start at CAD $66,500, which is approximately USD $48,100, making it about $3,100 more expensive than its US counterpart, priced at $45,000.
During Rivian’s third annual Family and Friends Day last weekend, a company executive disclosed that the R2 model has already garnered “well over 100,000 pre-orders.”
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
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