Rivian has officially launched the next-generation R1S and R1T, new versions of the company’s flagship electric vehicles.
“We continue to evolve our flagship R1 vehicles,” CEO RJ Scaringe said, “offering quality and performance without compromise. Our revamped R1S and R1T push the technical boundaries further, creating our most capable products to date.”
Rivian aimed to refine and improve performance, design, range, and overall ownership experience with the new R1T and R1S, bringing everything from new drivetrains to new interior aesthetics to the EVs without compromising any of the features that owners loved about the first generation.
Additionally, Rivian is rolling out its new Autonomy Platform, which was developed in-house and utilizes eleven internally developed cameras along with five radars that perform over 250 trillion operations per second.
“For most owners, their R1 Gen 2 will be the most powerful computer that they own,” VP of Autonomy and AI for Rivian, James Philbin, said.
Let’s dive into some of the improvements Rivian has employed:
Performance
Rivian’s next-gen R1 platform now features more power, performance, and range, all stemming from a new drive unit offered in its Tri and Quad-Motor configurations. Dual-Motor has not gone anywhere either, and still offers great performance metrics:
- Dual-Motor Our Dual-Motor delivers incredible all-wheel drive capability along with 665 horsepower and 0–60 mph in as quick as 3.4 seconds for the Performance variant
- Tri-Motor Our all-new 850 horsepower Tri-Motor packs two motors in the rear and one in front for a blend of exceptional power and range. The Tri-Motor R1T delivers 0–60 mph in 2.9 seconds while offering an estimated range of 380 miles. In Conserve Mode, the estimated range is up to 410 miles.
- Quad-Motor For peak adventure, our new 1,025 horsepower Quad-Motor delivers 0–60 mph in less than 2.5 seconds in R1T — and ¼ mile in 10.5 seconds — with a staggering 1,198 lb-ft of torque when using Launch Mode. 60–80 mph acceleration is 1.5 seconds, with incredible torque control at each wheel for superior on-road performance and off-road capability.
Ride and Handling
Rivian also focused on the ride and handling experience in the R1 lineup for this second-generation vehicle launch. The suspension system has been fully re-engineered, improving on what customers called a “sport-tuned feel” in the first-generation EVs. Rivian decided to go with a “smoother” ride for the new R1T and R1S, which is adjustable to ensure comfortable on and off-road capabilities.
Vehicle equipment has also been refined. Rivian developed new wheels and fitted them with new tires, including a redesigned 22″ aerodynamic wheel design and Pirelli-developed tires to increase range.
For Performance, Rivian is going with an Ultra-High-Performance Michelin tire that will be available on the Quad-Motor configurations. Additionally, for a “well-rounded” experience, Goodyear has a 20″ ADV tire that offers “balanced all-around capability with the rolling-resistance of an all-season,” and comes standard.
Range and Batteries
Three battery pack sizes will still be offered by Rivian, but the Max and Large batteries have been completely re-engineered and offer ranges of 420 and 330 miles, respectively, based on estimations. They will continue to use 2170 cylindrical cells, and the pack enclosure features a “large high-pressure de-casting” system to simplify manufacturing and reduce mass.
The new Standard Pack will feature lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) chemistry and provide an EPA-estimated 270-mile range.
140 miles of range can be regained in as little as 20 minutes and are compatible with all major public high-speed charging networks. This includes the Rivian Adventure Network and the Tesla Supercharger Network.
Design and Experience
Rivian honed in on new features with the R1T and R1S and also added two new premium interiors, new exterior paint options, and new darkout trim options.
These are in addition to the new wheel and tire choices, and now vehicles come with a new electronically tinted glass roof, new in-cabin storage, interior lighting themes, new digital interfaces, and new cell shading designs for the different drive modes. It has also improved on the wireless charger.
Surround Sound Audio with Dolby Atmos is available with Rivian Premium Audio.
Refined Electrical Architecture and Compute Platform
The second-gen R1 features new electrical architecture and a new compute platform that was developed in-house by the Rivian hardware and software teams.
“While the exterior of the R1 looks similar, the electrical system is completely redone, providing a significant increase in features as well as a dramatic increase in sensing and compute capability,” Rivian’s SVP of Electrical Hardware, Vidya Rajagopalan, said.
Trimming the ECU count from 17 in the first-gen to just 7 in the second-gen, the “massive simplification” was part of a shift in zonal architecture. Infotainment, autonomy, and vehicle access, as well as battery management, all have their own ECUs. Every other vehicle function is controlled by the remaining three.
Rivian Autonomy Platform
The Rivian Autonomy Platform utilizes “11 internally developed cameras and five radars performing over 250 trillion operations per second, an industry-leading level of compute power.”
The cameras are high-resolution and now include 4K HDR units, which have 360-degree visibility and can see three-times farther than the previous system, as well as 10 seconds ahead at highway speeds.
These are the most camera megapixels of any EV in North America and enable improved dynamic range and clear vision in high-contrast scenarios, like tunnel entrances and exits.
Rivian is also utilizing a cabin-facing camera in the rearview mirror to detect both driver fatigue and distraction when operating in Enhance Highway Assist mode, which will roll out later this year.
The Autonomy Compute Module is backed up by dual NVIDIA DRIVE Orin processors, delivering 10 times more compute performance than the previous system.
Pricing
The new R1S will start at $75,900 and the R1T at $69,900. Dual-Motor configurations can be ordered today and are available immediately. Tri-Max is expected to be launched in the late Summer, while Quad Max will come shortly after.
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Tesla has improved Dashcam playback with an awesome new addition, as the company has launched a web-based version that is potentially easier to navigate and operate.
The tool is available at dashcam.tesla.com and will be enabled as your vehicle receives the 2026.20 Software Version. Clips that are captured by your Tesla will be available on the Online Dashcam Clip Viewer once the files on your car’s storage drive are encrypted.
Not a Tesla App first noticed the new feature, and states that once your Tesla updates to 2026.20, the car will automatically protect the clips with an encryption key that is uniquely tied to your owner account.
Tesla Launches New Web-Based Dashcam Viewer https://t.co/AlJKXYxujJ pic.twitter.com/4igicYpvkX
— Not a Tesla App (@NotATeslaApp) June 2, 2026
The web-based viewer should be easier to operate for most. All you will do is head over to dashcam.tesla.com and log in using your account credentials.
Ensure your vehicle is updated to 2026.20 in order for the web-based viewer tool to fetch your vehicle’s saved dashcam clips.
Currently, only a small percentage of owners are updated to this, so it may be a couple of weeks until a majority of owners in the fleet are able to access this feature.
Watching Dashcam clips on the Tesla smartphone app is quick and convenient, as they can also be easily downloaded and stored right on your smartphone.
However, the clips are sometimes tougher to navigate, and in order to get details like self-driving activation, speed, and turn signals, owners have to screen record the Tesla app and crop out the rest of the screen.
It could also be a massive storage saver as you’ll be able to download the Dashcam clips from the online viewer and save them to your laptop, desktop, a flash drive, or even an external hard drive. This will keep all your clips in one place.
I recently took my Tesla Model Y running Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.3.3 over 150 miles on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in an effort to truly put the system under a stress test. There were a lot of good moments, and some bad, but overall, Full Self-Driving impressed me.
Last Thursday, I decided it was time to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, PA. I go a few times a year, and it was a beautiful day. Others have taken some pretty lengthy drives using FSD, but I haven’t had the opportunity to really do something lengthy in quite a few months on an older version. I decided it was the perfect opportunity to try some things out.
I recorded the entire ride there on a GoPro, edited to highlight the crucial moments, and shared them on our social media accounts. If you want to watch them, I’ll share them throughout the piece, but I did not get to do a real breakdown of what I felt about its performance.
Overall Thoughts
I realize it is probably better to do a summation of its performance toward the end of the piece, but I feel like it is also reasonable to lead with this because I was overly impressed with how well it handled everything. The only moments where I felt a little bit of reason to touch the wheel, at least while traveling on the Turnpike and Rt. 30, were due to other drivers and their behaviors.
I have taken many drives to the Memorial over the past several years, and although it’s not incredibly long, it is a tiring drive. It’s about five hours both ways, close to 300 miles, and I think most of the exhaustion comes from the toll of sitting in the car and then visiting something that is pretty heavy to take in.
This was the first time I’ve ever taken the ride and not felt like I needed to avoid my vehicle after I got home. In the past, I could not even think about driving after I finally arrived at my house, but this was simply different.
It was nice to have something else take the drive for me, while I still had the freedom to take over if I chose to. It made the entire trip more enjoyable.
Full Self-Driving Recognizes Lane-Ending Arrows on Road
After traveling in the fast lane for a little while, FSD noticed the arrows on the road indicating the lane was coming to an end ahead. The car was also in the process of making a pass on a slower vehicle in the middle lane, but aborted this maneuver and backed off to get behind the vehicle.
I was really impressed by this because I thought that the car would absolutely try to make the pass, only to get in front of the other car, and then slow back down to 75 MPH:
WATCH: Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 recognizes lane-ending arrows, aborts pass of slower traffic, and gets in line https://t.co/1dxvTOw5Cn pic.twitter.com/SOpuj9ZHyP
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 2, 2026
Full Self-Driving Notices Veering Tractor Trailer, Adjusts Lane Positioning
My two rules of the road are never cruise in the fast lane and never drive next to a tractor-trailer. This clip is a perfect example as to why.
FSD v14.3.3 recognized this tractor-trailer attempting to change lanes while we were still next to it. The car shifted its lane positioning to the shoulder slightly to make room for the merging semi, executed the pass safely, and on we went.
I will admit this one made me a little nervous, but more so because of the 18-wheeler, and not because of the Tesla:
WATCH: Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 notices tractor-trailer veering into lane, shifts lane positioning to create space, completes pass safely https://t.co/1dxvTOw5Cn pic.twitter.com/E35UrP79CH
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 2, 2026
Full Self-Driving Follows the Rules of Tunnel Travel
Many people who are not familiar with Full Self-Driving and its capabilities are pretty limited in what they know about the really simple things it does well. Part of supervising FSD is being aware of things it might make mistakes with, and anticipating maneuvers it might want to make at the wrong time.
Entering the Blue Mountain Tunnel on the Turnpike, I was ready for FSD to attempt to get back into the right lane after making a pass on a tractor-trailer, but I was pleasantly surprised. Several signs outside the tunnel advise drivers to stay in the lane they’ve chosen while driving through the tunnel; this eliminates the possibility of an accident caused by lane changes, which would impede traffic on a crucial logistics route.
I was happy to see that Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 did not make this mistake:
WATCH: Tesla Full Self-Driving follows rules of tunnel travel, recognizes double lines, and does not change lanes https://t.co/1dxvTOw5Cn pic.twitter.com/L6eEP5bCE9
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 2, 2026
Full Self-Driving Navigates Toll Plazas with Ease
I was interested to see how FSD would handle toll plazas, including the speed at which it would travel through them, and whether it would stop on the Turnpike at these booths, which have since been transitioned to a “Toll by Plate” system, which mails you a bill.
It was flawless:
WATCH: Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 seamlessly handles toll plaza, smoothly merges back onto Turnpike https://t.co/1dxvTOw5Cn pic.twitter.com/XmwY7rkj9J
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 2, 2026
Full Self-Driving Still Struggles with Parking from Time to Time
Since I took delivery in late August, I’ve never had a single instance of my Tesla struggling to park at a Supercharger. Other spots at the mall, market, or gym are another story.
This was the first time it did such a terrible job of backing into a spot. This required me to take over and manually park at another charger:
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 had trouble backing into the Fort Littleton, PA Supercharger, even though it was the only vehicle there.
This required manual parking. https://t.co/1dxvTOw5Cn pic.twitter.com/7xgqH2Z0ye
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 2, 2026
Full Self-Driving Gets Confused After Arriving at Its Destination
This was the first time I have ever experienced FSD getting confused and just circling the lot. The navigation continued to reroute to try to resolve the issue, but after four laps, I decided it was time to overtake the car’s controls and park manually:
Experienced the same thing a few days ago
I think one of the big features a lot of people would appreciate is parking preferences or spot selection https://t.co/RCVwUOMxoY pic.twitter.com/U9f1wW2np9
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 31, 2026
This was a baffling behavior that I truly couldn’t explain. Other owners communicated that they have also experienced this issue.
Final Thoughts
I am so incredibly impressed by FSD that it has really made traveling stress-free. The two issues related to parking were not ideal, but to be fair, I usually take over when arriving at parking lots. However, this shortcoming is something Tesla has to make some serious progress with, because parking has truly stumped FSD at times.
Solving that will be a major breakthrough for autonomy, but Tesla has struggled with it for some time.
All in all, FSD v14.3.3 is unbelievably accurate and handles many of the more stressful maneuvers with ease, one of them being avoiding merging traffic on highways, which was shown above.
Some things that would be great to see improvements on are parking, Speed Profiles, which are relatively tough to adjust (I stayed in Standard for the duration of this drive), and, of course, navigation.
Elon Musk
SpaceX’s amended S-1 is sparking a major Tesla merger conversation
A single line in SpaceX’s amended S-1 just sent Tesla stock down 5% in one day.
A single line buried in SpaceX’s amended S-1 filing is doing more to move Tesla’s stock price than anything Tesla itself has announced in months. The clause, disclosed as SpaceX prepares for what could be the largest IPO in Wall Street history, states that the company “may issue a significant amount of equity in connection with future transactions.” While this may be seen as boilerplate language in S-1 filings, the historical ties between SpaceX and Tesla, and with Elon Musk reportedly discussing a possible merger with close colleagues, investors are interpreting it as something closer to a signal.
The concern among institutional investors like Gary Black, managing director of The Future Fund, pointed directly to the amended filing on X, saying it “strongly suggests more SPCX equity will be issued,” which could potentially be used to acquire Tesla. He estimated such a deal could be 28% dilutive to Tesla shareholders since SpaceX would likely command a significantly higher valuation multiple. Black added that institutional investors he knows hate the idea of a combination because they prefer pure plays over conglomerates, which he said “nearly always gravitate to the lowest common multiple.”
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
The bull case runs the math differently. Tesla influencer and retail shareholder advocate AleXandra Merz pushed back on what she called a widespread misunderstanding of how merger-of-equals deals actually work. Rather than simply splitting the difference between two market caps, a merger exchange ratio is negotiated based on relative fair market values, meaning the lower valued company typically sees its stock reprice upward toward the deal value.
Under her model, SpaceX enters at a $2.5 trillion valuation and Tesla at $1.6 trillion, producing a combined entity worth $4.1 trillion split evenly between both shareholder groups. That implies Tesla’s side of the deal would be valued at $2.05 trillion, a gain of roughly $450 billion from its current market cap. She cited Dow-DuPont and CBS-Viacom as historical examples of how markets reprice both companies toward the announced exchange ratio after a deal is unveiled.
What does a Merger of Equals mean to Elon’s compensation packages?
Well, it changes everything.
Enjoy https://t.co/uekCldyITw pic.twitter.com/kolq1C9qTu
— AleXandra Merz 🇺🇲 (@TeslaBoomerMama) June 1, 2026
The SpaceX S-1 amendments also revealed just how much financial infrastructure already binds the two companies together. As Teslarati has reported, SpaceX purchased $697 million in Tesla Megapacks, $131 million in Cybertrucks, and the two companies have shared supply chain resources, and semiconductor fabrication plans since well before any merger conversation became public. A retail poll by Tesla influencer Sawyer Merritt is finding that 36% of respondents do not plan to buy SpaceX shares at IPO and 15.3% saying their decision depends on the valuation.
Do you plan on buying @SpaceX stock at its IPO?
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 1, 2026
Whether the merger happens or not, the amended filing is seemingly moving markets and sharpened a debate that is no longer theoretical. SpaceX is weeks away from trading publicly, and Tesla shareholders are now watching every word of every filing for clues about what Musk plans to do next.
Tesla improves Dashcam playback with awesome addition
Tesla Full Self-Driving attempts 150-mile stress test: the good and the bad
