Rivian says it plans to add third-party AI agents to its cars

In short: Rivian says its cars may eventually be able to use AI agents from other companies, not just Rivian’s own voice assistant.

What happened

Rivian recently started rolling out a built-in AI assistant that lets drivers and passengers control some car features by speaking. For example, someone might ask to lower the temperature or turn on seat warmers.

At TechCrunch Disrupt, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said a future step is letting Rivian vehicles run “AI agents” made by other companies, including Anthropic. An AI agent is a helper that can take actions for you inside software, like a digital assistant that can do more than answer questions.

Scaringe did not share a timeline. Rivian also declined to give more details, and pointed to a December event it is hosting called “AI & Autonomy Day.”

Rivian said it has built an “agentic framework,” which is a system that figures out what a person is asking for and sends the request to the right part of the car’s software. Scaringe compared it to a traffic light. Some requests could be handled by a small AI running in the vehicle itself, while harder questions could be sent to “the cloud” (a remote computer on the internet).

Scaringe said Rivian will be careful about safety. He said AI agents will not be allowed to control safety-critical functions like braking or steering.

Why it matters

Cars are starting to act more like personal devices, and voice assistants may become a bigger part of driving. The key questions for drivers will be what data these systems can access, what they can do inside the car, and how carmakers keep them from interfering with safety features.

Source: TechCrunch AI