Rivian explores in-house lidar manufacturing to complete its autonomous driving stack

Exclusive: Rivian mulls making its own lidar sensors, possibly in partnership with Chinese firms

SAN FRANCISCO, May 5 (Reuters) - Rivian Automotive (RIVN.O), opens new tab is considering making its own lidar sensors and could do so in partnership with a Chinese firm, CEO RJ Scaringe said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday. The Irvine, California-based electric automaker last year launched a plan to make its own chips as part of a broader push to develop its own proprietary self-driving technology that would compete with products from Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab. Rivian said that a version of its R2 vehicles coming later this year would include lidar sensors, which help self-driving vehicles gain a three-dimensional view of the road. Rivian did ⁠not disclose who would supply it with lidar sensors, which on demonstration vehicles were much smaller than the large, spinning units found on the streets of San Francisco and other cities in robotaxis designed by Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Waymo. Chinese suppliers such as Hesai Group and RoboSense have come to dominate the market for smaller, cheaper lidar sensors, but the rise of Chinese sensors has raised national security concerns among U.S. lawmakers. Rather than buy directly from a Chinese supplier, Rivian is mulling making its own lidar sensors in the United States using Chinese technology, possibly through a joint venture, Scaringe said in the interview in San Francisco. Scaringe said that "all the real choices are coming out of China" for the "low hundreds of dollars price point" for the sensor that automakers such as Rivian require. "Think of ⁠it as finding a way to structurally ingest the technology," Scaringe said. "The advancements in terms of going from the early lidars that I think a lot of us have seen - we see them here - to these much more advanced solid-state lidars, those advancements didn't happen in the United States. Those advancements happened in China." Scaringe said Rivian is in "active discussions" with lidar firms and that the effort might also include other automakers. "A number ⁠of different car manufacturers are thinking about how they could do that either together, or at least through a shared alignment to say, hey, let's develop production capacity in the United States for this, or at least outside China," Scaringe said. Rivian is committing "many hundreds of millions of dollars" to ⁠its custom chip program, whose first chip, called the Rivian Autonomy Processor or RAP-1 internally, arrives this year, Scaringe said. The automaker intends to release a new chip "every couple of years" with RAP-2 and RAP-3 successors to the first chip made on "more powerful" chip ⁠technology than the 5-nanometer from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company used to make RAP-1, the CEO said. "It's not like you invest a few hundred million dollars and it's done," Scaringe said. "We've built a team. That team is going to continue to develop future versions of the platform." Reporting by Stephen Nellis, Max Cherney and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Editing by Sam Holmes Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Autos & Transportation * ADAS, AV & Safety * Sustainable & EV Supply Chain * EV Strategy * Products Max A. Cherney Thomson Reuters Max A. Cherney is a correspondent for Reuters based in San Francisco, where he reports on the semiconductor industry and artificial intelligence. He joined Reuters in 2023 and has previously worked for Barron's magazine and its sister publication, MarketWatch. Cherney graduated from Trent University with a degree in history. Abhirup Roy Thomson Reuters Abhirup Roy is a U.S. autos correspondent based in San Francisco, covering Tesla and the wider electric and autonomous vehicle industry. He previously reported from India on global corporations, capital markets regulation, white-collar crime, and corporate litigation. Contact him at (415) 941-8665 or connect securely via Signal on abhiruproy.10

Rivian (RIVN) mulls making its own lidar as it builds full autonomous driving stack

Rivian is considering manufacturing its own lidar sensors in the United States, potentially through a partnership with Chinese firms, as the EV maker aggressively vertically integrates its entire autonomous driving stack. The move would add in-house lidar production to an autonomy strategy that already includes custom silicon chips and proprietary AI software -- positioning Rivian as one of the most vertically integrated players in autonomous driving outside of Tesla and Waymo. According to a Reuters exclusive, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe confirmed the company is in "active discussions" with lidar firms about producing sensors domestically rather than buying directly from Chinese suppliers. The rationale is straightforward: Chinese companies like Hesai Group and RoboSense dominate the market for affordable, compact lidar sensors. But buying directly from Chinese suppliers raises national security concerns among U.S. lawmakers, creating supply chain risk for any automaker relying on the technology. Scaringe told Reuters that "all the real choices are coming out of China" at the price point automakers need -- in the low hundreds of dollars per sensor. Rather than abandon lidar entirely, Rivian is exploring manufacturing in the U.S. using Chinese technology, possibly through a joint venture. The effort could extend beyond Rivian alone. Scaringe indicated that other automakers are thinking about shared production capacity outside China, suggesting a potential consortium approach to domestic lidar manufacturing. The lidar move is the latest signal that Rivian is building one of the most comprehensive in-house autonomous driving programs in the industry. Over the past six months, the company has assembled nearly every piece of the autonomy puzzle internally. At its inaugural AI & Autonomy Day in December 2025, Rivian unveiled the RAP1 -- a custom 5nm processor delivering 1,600 trillion operations per second of AI compute. The chip uses Arm's v9 architecture with 14 high-performance cores and is 2.5x more power-efficient than Rivian's previous systems. Rivian's Gen 3 Autonomy platform packs 11 cameras (65 megapixels total), five radars, and one lidar sensor -- giving it one of the most comprehensive sensor arrays of any consumer vehicle in North America. The company's Large Driving Model (LDM) is trained similarly to large language models, aiming for Level 4 fully autonomous driving capabilities. Adding in-house sensor manufacturing would give Rivian control over virtually every hardware and software component of its autonomy system. The most significant external validation of Rivian's autonomous driving ambitions came in March 2026, when Uber announced a partnership to deploy up to 50,000 Rivian R2 robotaxis across 25 cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe -- backed by up to $1.25 billion in investment. The deal is milestone-based: Uber committed an initial $300 million, with the remaining investment contingent on Rivian achieving specific autonomous performance benchmarks through 2031. The first robotaxis are expected in San Francisco and Miami by 2028. What makes this partnership notable is that there is no third-party autonomy software involved. Rivian handles everything -- chips, sensors, software, and vehicle platform. That is rare in an industry where most robotaxi deployments rely on specialized autonomy companies layering software onto third-party vehicles. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently offered his most direct endorsement of Rivian's capabilities, praising the company for "putting together a first-class AI team" and expressing confidence they can deliver on the R2 robotaxis. Rivian's approach contrasts sharply with other players in the autonomous driving space. Tesla relies solely on cameras and in-house chips, rejecting lidar entirely. Waymo uses a multi-sensor approach but buys components from suppliers. Most traditional automakers partner with autonomy startups rather than building in-house. Rivian's strategy most closely resembles what Tesla did with its FSD computer -- designing custom hardware specifically optimized for its own software -- but with the addition of lidar and radar sensors that Tesla has explicitly rejected. The timeline is ambitious. Rivian plans hands-free driving this year and eyes-free capability in 2026, with fully autonomous Level 4 targeted for the 2028 Uber deployment. That is a compressed schedule by any measure. Rivian's autonomy push has gone from interesting side project to genuine industry contender over the last twelve months. Custom chips, proprietary AI, a massive robotaxi deal with Uber, and now potential in-house lidar manufacturing -- this is a company that is clearly spending aggressively to own the entire autonomous driving stack. The lidar manufacturing angle is particularly smart. The geopolitical tension around Chinese sensors is real, and any automaker relying on Chinese lidar suppliers faces regulatory risk, but they are leading both in cost and production volumes. By potentially manufacturing domestically using Chinese technology through a JV, Rivian threads the needle -- getting access to the best sensor technology while mitigating supply chain and political risk. The big question remains execution. Rivian is still burning cash, only recently started R2 production, and is now attempting to simultaneously launch a new vehicle, develop Level 4 autonomy, design custom chips, and potentially manufacture its own sensors. That is an enormous amount of parallel development for a company of Rivian's size. But the Uber deal provides both capital and accountability. Milestone-based investment means Rivian has to hit specific autonomous performance targets to unlock funding. If they can deliver, they will have built something that very few companies in the world have achieved: a fully vertically integrated autonomous electric vehicle platform.