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Rivian launches hands-off driving assist in latest software update
Rivian is finally making its way into the world of automated driving.
Electric vehicle (EV) maker Rivian debuted a new software update this week, and as part of it, the company has started rolling out a hands-off driving assistance system.
Rivian announced the software update in a press release on Tuesday, featuring the newly launched Enhanced Highway Assist for its Gen 2 R1T and R1S, as well as a performance upgrade and a few other improvements. In a separate release, Rivian has also detailed some of the gears behind its approach to autonomy, highlighting that the Enhanced Highway Assist is available for use on as many as 135,000 miles of highway in North America.
Below is a video from CEO RJ Scaringe and VP of Autonomy and AI James Philbin, along with a few more details about the software update and some information from the automaker about the in-house Rivian Autonomy Platform.
Credit: Rivian
READ MORE ON RIVIAN: Rivian’s $6.6B federal loan for its Georgia Plant is in limbo
Enhanced Highway Assist for Gen 2 vehicles
The company’s latest software update is deploying the new Enhanced Highway Assist to Gen 2 vehicles, which will let drivers take their hands off the wheel for extended periods of time, not unlike Tesla’s Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD). For the time being, the feature is being offered to owners for free, though it’s not clear if Rivian plans to eventually start charging for the suite.
Enhanced Highway Assist is able to control the vehicles’ steering, acceleration, and braking, and Rivian also uses an infrared cabin camera embedded in the interior rearview mirror to monitor driver attention.
Rivian Autonomy Platform
In the press release dedicated to its autonomy program, Rivian notes that its vehicles include a multimodal suite of 11 cameras and five radars, offering sensor redundancy and a 360-degree view. The company also says that its internally developed cameras have the highest resolution of any vehicle in North America, while its radar systems are intended to help detect objects over longer distances and in low-visibility conditions.
“We are excited to continue releasing new updates and dramatically expanding our autonomy features,” Philbin said. “Everything on our Gen 2 roadmap is capable with the hardware on our vehicles today.”
Rivian says its vehicles also include an on-board compute module that’s capable of more than 200 trillion operations per second, while the company’s machine learning models are trained on the latest ML research and transformer architectures.
Performance Upgrade for Dual-Motor (Gen 1 and Gen 2)
Rivian has also debuted a $5,000 Performance Upgrade for Gen 1 and Gen 2 vehicles with the Standard+, Large and Max battery packs, unlocking 665 horsepower and 829 lb.-ft. of torque. The upgrade also adds three new drive modes, dubbed Sport, Rally, and Soft Sand, to the currently available All-Purpose, All-Terrain, and Snow modes.
Owners can purchase the upgrade from the Rivian mobile app or account page, and it will be downloaded to the vehicle through an over-the-air (OTA) software update.
Credit: Rivian
Rally Mode comes to Performance Dual-Motor vehicles
The update also adds Rally Mode to Performance Dual-Motor vehicles, offering heightened throttle response, crisper steering on just about any terrain. To use the feature, drivers will simply need to switch into Off-Road mode, which will let them select Rally Mode.
Wheel Swap
Owners will now be able to change the vehicles’ wheel type in the settings menu, offering improved range estimates.
Credit: Rivian
Go Chime
Rivian has added an audible chime for when a stopped vehicle ahead starts moving, signaling to the driver that they can start driving too. The chime will first be added to the EV maker’s Gen 2 models, before later rolling out to Gen 1.
Side Mirror Auto-Tilt on Reverse
When drivers shift into reverse, Rivian’s sideview mirrors will now automatically tilt downward to show the curb and road, making parallel parking easier. This feature will also go out to both Gen 1 and Gen 2 vehicles.
Control Chargeport Door from Mobile App
Drivers will now be able to control their charging port door remotely using the mobile app, adding an extra layer of protection for those who walk away without closing it manually.
Tire Puncture Detection
Rivian has added proactive detection for tire punctures and slow leaks, set to notify drivers of a potential flat tire before it happens.
Rivian teams up with Ben & Jerry’s on an electric ice cream truck
SpaceXAI announced today that it had signed an agreement with Anthropic to give the company access to its Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee.
It is a monumental deal as Anthropic will gain access to all of the compute at the plant, delivering more than 300 megawatts of power and over 220,000 NVIDIA GPUs within the month.
Anthropic’s Claude AI account on X announced the partnership:
“We’ve agreed to a partnership with SpaceX that will substantially increase our compute capacity. This, along with our other recent compute deals, means that we’ve been able to increase our usage limits for Claude Code and the Claude API.”
The company is also:
- Doubling Claude Code’s 5-hour rate limits for Pro, Max, and Team plans;
- Removing the peak hours limit reduction on Claude Code for Pro and Max plans; and
- Substantially raising its API rate limits for Opus models.
We’ve agreed to a partnership with @SpaceX that will substantially increase our compute capacity.
This, along with our other recent compute deals, means that we’ve been able to increase our usage limits for Claude Code and the Claude API.
— Claude (@claudeai) May 6, 2026
SpaceX also published its own release on the new agreement, noting that it is “the only organization with the launch cadence, mass-to-orbit economics, and constellation operations experience to make orbital compute a near-term engineering program rather than a research concept.”
CEO Elon Musk also commented on the partnership and shed light on intense meetings he had with senior members of Anthropic last week, stating, “nobody set on my evil detector.”
Same here.
By way of background for those who care, I spent a lot of time last week with senior members of the Anthropic team to understand what they do to ensure Claude is good for humanity and was impressed.
Everyone I met was highly competent and cared a great deal about…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2026
This has turned the argument that SpaceX is as much an AI company as a space exploration company into a very valid argument:
SpaceX is following in Tesla’s footsteps in a way nobody expected
Nevertheless, this is an incredibly valuable and important move in the grand scheme of things. AI scaling is fundamentally bottlenecked by compute, and demand for Claude has surged, bringing terrestrial power grids, land, and cooling operations hitting limits everywhere.
Anthropic has been aggressively signing multiple large-scale deals to be competitive in the space, including:
- Up to 5GW with Amazon
- 5GW with Google and Broadcom
- Strategic $30b Azure deal with Microsoft/NVIDIA
- $50b U.S. infrastructure investment with Fluidstack
Access to Colossus 1 gives Anthropic immediate relief on NVIDIA GPU capacity. For SpaceXAI, it turns its rapid buildout into revenue. It also showcases its ability to deliver at world-leading speed and scale.
Most importantly, it plants the seed that its much larger vision, orbital AI compute, is totally viable.
Starlink V3 satellites could enable SpaceX’s orbital computing plans: Musk
Within the month, Anthropic will begin using 100 percent of Colossus 1’s compute, directly expanding capacity for Claude Pro and Max subscribers and the API. This means fewer limits, faster responses, and support for heavier workloads.
In the long term, meaning 2026 and beyond, there will be a continued rollout of other multi-GW deals Anthropic has signed, and an early exploration of orbital compute with SpaceXAI.
News
Tesla unveils mysterious prototype at Giga Texas: Is the Model Y L coming to America?
The Model Y L has been available in China for some time, but Americans are wondering when it will potentially come to the United States, offering a larger version of the best-selling vehicle in the world, as the Model X is officially phased out.
Tesla unveiled a mysterious prototype, covered up between a Model Y and a Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas, perhaps giving yet another hint that the Model Y L is coming to America.
The Model Y L has been available in China for some time, but Americans are wondering when it will potentially come to the United States, offering a larger version of the best-selling vehicle in the world, as the Model X is officially phased out.
Giga Texas observer and drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer captured an image of the vehicle on May 6, showing a fully-covered prototype parked alongside a standard Model Y and a Cybertruck.
This mystery Tesla is covered at Gigafactory Texas
What do you think it is? https://t.co/l5WVKLi9yM pic.twitter.com/CcOybDkCkn
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 6, 2026
From top-down and angled views, the prototype appears nearly identical in scale to the Model Y but reveals noticeably distinct rear proportions—an elongated rear door that stretches farther over the wheel arch and rear glass that flows uninterrupted to the spoiler lip.
The side-by-side placement provides an immediate size reference. The mystery vehicle sits comfortably between the compact Model Y and the massive Cybertruck, suggesting it occupies a practical middle ground for families seeking more interior room without jumping to a full-size pickup.
Enthusiasts quickly took to social media with guesses ranging from an extended-wheelbase Model Y to a potential station-wagon variant.
The sight of this prototype follows an earlier look at another shrouded body-in-white resting in a wooden shipping crate at the Giga Texas plant in late March.
That prototype appeared to display an elongated silhouette. Some analysis seems to show nearly exact dimensions as to what is reported for the Model Y L in the Chinese market, approximately 4.98 meters long with a 3.04-meter wheelbase, roughly seven inches longer overall than the U.S.-spec Model Y. The rear-door extension and glass-to-spoiler design were identical to the current sighting:
The Model Y L has already proven popular in China, where it launched in six- and seven-seat configurations and quickly ranked among the top-selling mid-to-large SUVs. Owners enjoy roughly 10 percent more cargo space and enhanced family versatility.
Tesla has remained silent on U.S. plans other than CEO Elon Musk saying it could come in late 2026, but localizing production at Giga Texas would make strategic sense.
With the Model X phase-out and steady Model Y output already humming along expanded lines, a longer-wheelbase variant could add tens of thousands of annual deliveries without major retooling.
The latest sighting arrives amid Tesla’s broader push to refresh its lineup. Whether this prototype represents the long-rumored Model Y L, a subtle Juniper-style update, or something entirely new remains unconfirmed.
Yet the consistent visual cues—precise dimensional match, distinctive rear styling, and strategic placement at Giga Texas—point strongly toward an extended Model Y designed for American families who want extra space without sacrificing the Model Y’s efficiency and affordability.Tesla watchers will be monitoring future drone flights closely.
If the prototype is indeed the Model Y L, it could mark a significant expansion of the company’s best-selling vehicle and deliver the extra room many U.S. buyers have been requesting for years. For now, the blue tarp keeps its secrets—but the clues are getting harder to hide.
News
Tesla Roadster gets an update, but not the one fans were looking for
Tesla has quietly filed a new trademark application for its next-generation Roadster, giving enthusiasts their first official glimpse of fresh branding for the long-teased electric supercar.
Tesla has been slow to show its hand regarding the massive project that is the Roadster, but it is now coming forth with a new update.
However, it is probably not the one fans were looking for.
Tesla has quietly filed a new trademark application for its next-generation Roadster, giving enthusiasts their first official glimpse of fresh branding for the long-teased electric supercar.
The February 3 filing includes an inverted triangular badge with the word “ROADSTER” centered above four vertical lines that, according to the application, represent “speed, propulsion, heat, or wind.”
A sleek, angular wordmark and a minimalist curved-line silhouette hinting at the car’s aerodynamic shape round out the trio of marks.
I found something cool. Tesla has filed a new trademark application for its next-generation Roadster. It could be the new Roadster logo/badge.
The filing says the lines depict speed, propulsion, heat or wind.
(I took the liberty of making the logo red. Trademark filings are… pic.twitter.com/W9JSDwTRL7
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 6, 2026
For a program that began with Elon Musk’s 2017 reveal, this is tangible forward motion. The original Roadster proved EVs could be thrilling; the next generation aims higher, with promises of sub-two-second 0-60 mph acceleration and, in its most extreme configuration, optional SpaceX cold-gas thrusters for rocket-like thrust.
The new trademarks suggest Tesla is now locking down the visual identity that will accompany those headline specs, as well as a small hint that maybe we’re finally getting close. However, the company has not revealed any progress on the vehicle itself or its specs to the public.
It continues to tease with developments like this one.
That said, the update lands with a familiar bittersweet note. Fans have waited nearly a decade since the initial unveiling. Production was once eyed for 2020, then 2021, then later still. In the intervening years, Tesla has delivered the Model Y, Cybertruck, Semi, and major autonomy advances while scaling its energy business.
The Roadster has taken a back seat, and the delays have been genuinely disappointing. Many longtime supporters have grown frustrated watching renderings and hearsay while other marques roll out ever-faster electric sports cars.
Yet, the Roadster program itself still sparks genuine excitement. It represents the purest expression of Tesla’s “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy” mission—pushing performance boundaries to prove EVs can outperform anything with an engine.
The new branding, modest as it is, keeps that promise alive. It tells owners and prospective buyers that Tesla hasn’t forgotten the car that started it all.
No one would blame fans for wanting more than a logo right now. But in an industry where many concepts never leave the drawing board, the fact that Tesla continues to invest in and protect the Roadster’s identity is reason for measured optimism.
The wait has tested patience, but when the next-generation Roadster finally arrives, the new badge may well adorn one of the most exciting cars ever built. For those who have followed the journey this far, that payoff still feels worth it.
SpaceXAI signs agreement with Anthropic for massive AI supercomputer access
Tesla unveils mysterious prototype at Giga Texas: Is the Model Y L coming to America?
