Rivian will first release its point-to-point hands-free driving feature through an invitation-only Autonomy Early Access Program, and the owners who are selected must sign a nondisclosure agreement covering the program. Electrek’s Fred Lambert reported the terms on Oct. 15, 2026. Rivian says the feature launches to this group in late 2026 and expands to all eligible owners in 2027.
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Eligibility is narrow by design: U.S. owners of R1 Gen 2 and R2 vehicles who pay for the Autonomy+ subscription, with Gen 1 R1 owners and Canadians excluded. Any paying subscriber can raise a hand through a tile in the Rivian account, but only some will be asked in. Rivian says submitted interest stays on file, so applicants do not need to reapply for later phases, and the Connect+ subscription is not required.
Who gets an invitation
Rivian’s own support page for the program says invitations roll out starting October 15, 2026, and are based on an active Autonomy+ subscription (trials do not count), high use of Autonomy features and a clean recent safety record, with region and vehicle model also considered. Initial selection covers California and Florida, with more states to follow. Only the primary owner’s account shows the sign-up tile, and eligibility is rechecked about every 30 days, with Rivian free to remove participants at its discretion.
Autonomy+ costs $2,500 as a one-time payment or $49.99 per month, the pricing Rivian set at its December 2025 autonomy event, where Rivian also unveiled its in-house RAP1 chip. Rivian began charging for the subscription in April after a free trial period, and CEO RJ Scaringe called the autonomy push “an inflection point for the ownership experience” when he introduced the pricing.
The tester’s side of the NDA
The terms Electrek reviewed put real obligations on participants. Testers must use preview features weekly, log issues when it is safe, complete mandatory monthly surveys, stay available for interviews or focus groups, and enable data collection that includes location and camera data sharing. They sign a Participation Agreement with an NDA covering the preview features, program details and feedback, and the primary owner must tell any secondary drivers that the vehicle is enrolled. Testers are not paid. Their reward is receiving new Autonomy features early over the air, plus a newsletter. Membership can be revoked, and access ends if an owner cancels Autonomy+, sells the vehicle or fails an eligibility check, which makes the program closer to a probationary relationship than a one-time sign-up.
Applying also requires consent for Rivian to review existing vehicle and account data, including software and feature usage, driving and operation history and prior program participation.
Electrek compared the arrangement with Tesla’s early Full Self-Driving beta, whose testers also signed NDAs. Tesla used its Safety Score to pick paying owners and eventually opened the beta to nearly everyone who bought the package. Electrek called Rivian’s approach of choosing active users with clean safety records and rechecking them monthly a responsible way to put a beta driver-assist feature on public roads.
From Universal Hands-Free to point-to-point
Today’s feature is Universal Hands-Free, which arrived with software update 2025.46 and grew Rivian’s hands-free coverage from about 135,000 miles of road to more than 3.5 million miles in the United States and Canada. It works on roads with clearly marked lane lines but cannot slow or stop for traffic lights or stop signs. Point-to-point is meant to handle the whole trip. Owners can already choose Mild, Medium or Spicy drive styles for the feature, with Mild leaving more following distance and gentler lane changes and Spicy using tighter gaps and quicker steering.
The timeline has slipped. In January 2025, CEO RJ Scaringe was reported to have said that an eyes-free system would follow in 2026. On the second-quarter earnings call in July, Scaringe described the first version as “Level 2++,” with hands off the wheel and eyes still on the road, and said hands-off, eyes-off driving arrives in 2027 and Level 4 in 2028. Electrek called late 2026 for a small invited group in select states a soft launch at best, with about 11 weeks left in the year, and noted that most paying R1 Gen 2 and R2 owners are looking at 2027.
The hardware roadmap runs alongside the software one. Rivian targets the end of 2026 for its third-generation autonomy platform, built around the RAP1 chip, and it has said that platform includes 11 cameras, five radars and one lidar. Electrek reported in May that Rivian is considering making its own lidar sensors in the United States, with Scaringe confirming “active discussions” with lidar firms and saying “all the real choices are coming out of China” at the low-hundreds-of-dollars price automakers need. Separately, Uber agreed in March 2026 to deploy up to 50,000 Rivian R2 robotaxis in 25 cities, with the first expected in San Francisco and Miami in 2028.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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