Rivian’s point-to-point driving feature will first reach owners through an invitation-only “Autonomy Early Access Program,” and the owners it picks will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement to get in.

The program, laid out on a new Rivian support page, covers US R1 Gen 2 and R2 owners who pay for Autonomy+. Rivian says point-to-point launches to that group in late 2026 and won’t expand broadly until 2027.

Tesla’s Senior Manager of Cybercab General Assembly at Gigafactory Texas, Jody Kerns, is leaving the company to become Rivian’s Director of General Assembly for the R2 in Normal, Illinois.

He’s the second Cybercab launch leader to leave Tesla this year. The head of Cybercab new product introduction walked out in April, before the vehicle ever carried a paying passenger.

Rivian is rolling out Pet Cam, a new feature in software update 2026.36 that lets R2 owners check on a pet left in the vehicle through a live video feed in the Rivian app.

It’s exclusive to the R2. R1T and R1S owners get new remote Pet Mode controls instead, and the same update brings the Rivian Assistant to the R2, four months after the SUV launched.

Rivian’s first R2s with LiDAR and its in-house RAP1 autonomy computer will go to employees before the end of 2026. Paying customers will have to wait until 2027. It could be interpreted as a delay compared to previous communications.

The automaker laid out the timeline at an investor conference in New York this week, along with updates on point-to-point driving, its Uber robotaxi deal, and what LiDAR now costs it: “a few hundred dollars.”

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says the upcoming R3 crossover will come in “materially lower” than the R2 on price, and that a follow-up model, the R4, will push prices down further still.

He didn’t give a number. But it’s the clearest sign yet that Rivian plans to keep walking its lineup down toward the heart of the market after the R2 launch.

Rivian is rolling out RivianOS 2, the biggest overhaul of its in-car software since the R1 first shipped. For the first time, it puts every vehicle the company sells on a single software stack.

The update, version 2026.31, started reaching eligible R1 and R2 vehicles today. It brings a rebuilt interface, Unreal Engine 5 graphics, real-time police and speed-camera alerts, and a deeper AI layer Rivian calls Unified Intelligence.

Rivian reported its second-quarter 2026 earnings today, and there are improvements across the board. It’s a car. The company started delivering the R2, its first vehicle priced under $50,000, to customers on June 9.

The financials came in strong too. Revenue reached $1.658 billion, up 27% year-over-year, and Rivian posted a record $179 million gross profit while beating Wall Street on revenue, earnings, and adjusted EBITDA.

Out of Spec Reviews put a Rivian R2 Performance and a Tesla Model Y Performance on the same roads on the same afternoon. The R2 used 18% to 26% more energy at every single speed they tested.

That’s awkward, because the two SUVs carry identical EPA efficiency ratings, and Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe has been telling media the R2 matches the Model Y.

A private seller in Littleton, Colorado has listed a brand-new 2027 Rivian R2 Performance on Cars.com for $79,900 — roughly $20,000 over what Rivian charges for the same vehicle.

The listing went up July 1, just weeks after Rivian started delivering the R2 to its first customers, and it comes with the kind of cover story flippers tend to lean on.

Rivian has commenced an underwritten public offering of 75 million shares of common stock, a raise worth roughly $1.5 billion based on the stock’s recent price.

The capital raise lands just days after Rivian’s stock rallied on stronger-than-expected Q2 delivery results and a raised full-year outlook.

Lucid has registered the design of its upcoming Cosmos with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, giving us the clearest look yet at the sub-$50,000 crossover the automaker is betting its future on.

The filing, published last week, shows the production design of Lucid’s first mass-market EV from every angle, inside and out, months before its expected reveal this summer.

Rivian laid off hundreds of workers on Tuesday, or less than 2% of its workforce, just one week after it began deliveries of its all-important R2 SUV.

The electric automaker confirmed the cuts hit its service and customer teams, which include sales and marketing, as it tries to claw its way to a profit it has yet to ever post.