Robots and AI are the hot new thing
Tesla is nearly done with having vehicles as its number one priority, and Rivian may not be far behind. In its third-quarter shareholders’ letter, Rivian says it’s building advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and robots. The extent of its initiative is unknown, but at least for now, it will be focused on manufacturing.
The spinoff, Mind Robotics, has already secured $115 million in seed funding, led by venture capital firm Eclipse. Interestingly, one Eclipse partner, Jiten Behl, who posted about the seed funding round on LinkedIn, previously worked at Rivian. It’s not the first time Eclipse and Rivian have worked together, either, as the firm helped secure funding for Rivian’s “micro-mobility” firm, ALSO.
Paul A. Eisenstein
What Rivian is saying
Rivian says Mind Robotics will use “industrial AI to reshape how physical world businesses operate and leverage Rivian operations data as the foundation for a robotics data flywheel.” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe added that Rivian has an opportunity to “develop products and robotic solutions that allow us to run and operate our manufacturing plants more efficiently.”
“As much as we’ve seen AI shift how we operate and run our businesses through the wide-ranging applications for LLMs [Large Language Models, the underpinning of AI], the potential for AI to really shift how we think about operating in the physical world is, in some ways, unimaginably large,” Scaringe added. “So the creation of this 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.”
What this means
Rivian didn’t elaborate, but the messaging is informative. The ”Mind Robotics” naming is a bit of sci-fi fright, making it sound as though they want to create artificial brains or something, but there is likely a more pragmatic plan. Or at least we hope there is.
Rivian
We can look to the BMW Group for insight into what Rivian may be up to. BMW has worked to transform its production facilities to be more nimble by introducing automation. Where humans used to transport large or heavy items, machines now do that work, and items travel a far shorter distance within the facilities. Some processes that required a specialist’s touch were automated to reduce part failure rates and improve productivity. When a vehicle is redesigned, even slightly, machines tasked with the processes only need to be told once how it’s done.
This is the type of manufacturing process Rivian seems to be eyeing: an engineering-first protocol that reduces the volume of hard labor humans have to do. It allows for a more streamlined production line and supports facilities in being refitted when new processes are needed. Moreover, it can reduce pre-production time for ramping up manufacturing for new vehicles.
Final thoughts
When discussing Rivian and Tesla, keep one thing in mind: these two firms operate like tech companies, not automakers. Mind Robotics is a testament to that. “Big auto” has employees who need to be re-skilled to meet production changes. Rivian appears to be gearing up for a robots-first manufacturing process wherein “re-skilling” means rewriting code for the machines. This doesn’t necessarily mean humans will be out of work, but it does suggest that how people build cars will change dramatically.
