- Rivian is getting into the robotics game, just like Tesla and, more recently, General Motors.
- In November, it set up a company called Mind Robotics, with $110 million of seed capital.
- The company will "focus on the advancement of industrial AI."
Following in the footsteps of Tesla, which is developing a humanoid robot called Optimus, Rivian on Tuesday announced its entry into the world of robotics.
The electric vehicle startup said it spun off a new company called Mind Robotics in November with the help of $110 million in external funding. What exactly it will do wasn't immediately clear based on the announcement.
"We believe there are synergies shared between the development of autonomous driving and physical AI," the company said in its third-quarter shareholder letter. "Mind Robotics will focus on the advancement of industrial AI to reshape how physical world businesses operate and leverage Rivian operations data as the foundation for a robotics data flywheel."
It added that the kind of "AI-enabled robotics" it plans to build "can support a wide range of industrial applications." So, are we looking at an all-purpose human-shaped robot like Tesla and other startups are trying to build? Or is Rivian working on equipment for specific use cases? We don't really know yet.
What we do know is Rivian thinks it can apply what it's working on in the self-driving space to other kinds of products. And that may make sense. Both technologies use AI models to learn and operate in the real world—"physical AI," as the new buzzword calls it.
On Tuesday's earnings call, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe elaborated on what Mind Robotics will do and why Rivian created it.
"We've spent a lot of time on, as a company, thinking around and thinking about: what does our manufacturing infrastructure and manufacturing platforms look like long term?" he said. "And as we thought through that, it led us to the view that we need to develop products and robotic solutions that allow us to run and operate our manufacturing plants more efficiently."
"The creation is company is ultimately the culmination of us coming to the view that we wanted to have direct control and direct influence over the design and development of advanced AI robotics that would be very focused on industrial applications," he added.
Scaringe said it would capture data from its facilities to train the robotic equipment, which would be used for both Rivian and other applications. Rivian, he said, would be "a close partner and shareholder."
Rivian isn't alone. General Motors recently said it's robotics lab is working on "collaborative robots" that work with humans, along with "AI that learns and improves with every manufacturing cycle."
This is the second startup Rivian has spun off this year. In March, it announced a micromobility company called Also—as in, electric cars are great, but the world also needs high-tech smaller vehicles. In October, Also unveiled its first products: the TM-B electric bike and TM-Q four-wheeler.
Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com
Updated 5:20 pm ET with comments from Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe.
Updated 5:30 pm ET with additional comments from Scaringe.
Updated 5:34 pm ET with information about Also.
