Rivian has announced plans to take its upcoming electric vehicles (EVs) on a tour around North America, after the company unveiled the R2 and R3 models earlier this year.
Last week, Rivian announced in a post on its website that it would be displaying both the upcoming R2 and R3X vehicles at various locations in the U.S. and Canada, after initially launching displays at a few select stores. All of the events are set to include the R2 and R3X except the LA Auto Show, which won’t include the R3X, and most of the tour is taking place at automotive shows.
“Get ready—our R2 Road Tour is coming to a town near you,” Rivian writes. “We’re cruising through cities across the country, bringing you an up close and personal look at the all-new R2. You can also meet the new Gen 2 R1S & R1T and take a demo drive. Keep an eye out for R3X making guest appearances along the way.”
The news also comes after Rivian officially began expanding its Normal, Illinois factory last week to accommodate production of the R2 pickup and SUV. The company was originally approved for such an expansion in August, after a unanimous vote from Normal Town Council.
According to Rivian’s VP of Manufacturing Tim Fallon in a statement in July, the R2 had already gained more than 100,000 pre-orders, following its unveiling in March. In a surprise move after the R2 was unveiled, Rivian went on to share an additional EV, the R3X, is expected to enter production after the R2.
In addition to the upcoming R2 and R3X displays, Rivian has had the R2 on display at multiple locations in California, as well as in Vancouver, B.C., Portland, New York City, Nashville, Austin, and Boston. You can see all of Rivian’s upcoming R2 and R3X appearances below, including an ongoing display at the company’s Laguna Beach space that ends on Sunday.
Rivian R2 and R3X appearances in 2024
November 15 to 17: Laguna Beach (10:00 am – 6:00 pm)
Rivian South Coast Theater – 162 S Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, CA 92651
November 20: Venice (11:00 am – 7:00 pm)
Rivian Venice Space – 660 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
November 22 to 27 and November 30 to December 1: Los Angeles Auto Show
Los Angeles Convention Center – 1201 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015
- 11/22 to 11/24: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
- 11/25 to 11/27: 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
- 11/28 to 11/29: No viewings of R2 and R3X for holiday
- 11/30: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
- 12/1: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Note: The Rivian R3X will not be displayed at the LA Auto Show.
Rivian R2 and R3X appearances in 2025
January 11 to 20: Detroit Auto Show
Huntington Place: 1 Washington Blvd., Detroit, MI 48226
- 1/11 to 1/14: 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
- 1/15 to 1/16: 1:00pm – 8:00 p.m.
- 1/17 to 1/19: 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
- 1/20: 10:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
February 8 to 17: Chicago Auto Show
McCormick Place: 2301 S Martin Luther King Dr, Chicago, IL 60616
- 2/8: 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
- 2/9: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
- 2/10 to 2/16: 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
- 2/17: 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
February 19 to 23: Toronto (Canadian International Auto Show)
Metro Toronto Convention Centre: 255 Front St W, Toronto, ON M5V 2W6, Canada
- Time: TBD
March 19 to 23: Vancouver Auto Show
Vancouver Convention Centre: 1055 Canada Place, Vancouver, B.C.
- 3/19: 12:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
- 3/20 to 3/22: 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
- 3/23: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
Rivian and Volkswagen expand joint venture in hopes of surviving EV transition
In Pennsylvania, we got between 10 and 12 inches of snow over the weekend as a nasty Winter storm ripped through a large portion of the country, bringing snow to some areas and nasty ice storms to others.
I have had a Model Y Performance for the week courtesy of Tesla, which got the car to me last Monday. Today was my last full day with it before I take it back to my local showroom, and with all the accumulation on it, I decided to run a cool little experiment: How long would it take for Tesla’s Defrost feature to melt 8 inches of snow?
Tesla’s Defrost feature is one of the best and most underrated that the car has in its arsenal. While every car out there has a defrost setting, Tesla’s can be activated through the Smartphone App and is one of the better-performing systems in my opinion.
It has come in handy a lot through the Fall and Winter, helping clear up my windshield more efficiently while also clearing up more of the front glass than other cars I’ve owned.
The test was simple: don’t touch any of the ice or snow with my ice scraper, and let the car do all the work, no matter how long it took. Of course, it would be quicker to just clear the ice off manually, but I really wanted to see how long it would take.
Tesla Model Y heat pump takes on Model S resistive heating in defrosting showdown
Observations
I started this test at around 10:30 a.m. It was still pretty cloudy and cold out, and I knew the latter portion of the test would get some help from the Sun as it was expected to come out around noon, maybe a little bit after.
I cranked it up and set my iPhone up on a tripod, and activated the Time Lapse feature in the Camera settings.
The rest of the test was sitting and waiting.
It didn’t take long to see some difference. In fact, by the 20-minute mark, there was some notable melting of snow and ice along the sides of the windshield near the A Pillar.
However, this test was not one that was “efficient” in any manner; it took about three hours and 40 minutes to get the snow to a point where I would feel comfortable driving out in public. In no way would I do this normally; I simply wanted to see how it would do with a massive accumulation of snow.
It did well, but in the future, I’ll stick to clearing it off manually and using the Defrost setting for clearing up some ice before the gym in the morning.
Check out the video of the test below:
❄️ How long will it take for the Tesla Model Y Performance to defrost and melt ONE FOOT of snow after a blizzard?
Let’s find out: pic.twitter.com/Zmfeveap1x
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 26, 2026
Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor is proving to be a difficult task, according to some riders who made the journey to Austin to attempt to ride in one of its vehicles that has zero supervision.
Last week, Tesla officially removed Safety Monitors from some — not all — of its Robotaxi vehicles in Austin, Texas, answering skeptics who said the vehicles still needed supervision to operate safely and efficiently.
BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor
Tesla aimed to remove Safety Monitors before the end of 2025, and it did, but only to company employees. It made the move last week to open the rides to the public, just a couple of weeks late to its original goal, but the accomplishment was impressive, nonetheless.
However, the small number of Robotaxis that are operating without Safety Monitors has proven difficult to hail for a ride. David Moss, who has gained notoriety recently as the person who has traveled over 10,000 miles in his Tesla on Full Self-Driving v14 without any interventions, made it to Austin last week.
He has tried to get a ride in a Safety Monitor-less Robotaxi for the better part of four days, and after 38 attempts, he still has yet to grab one:
Wow just wow!
It’s 8:30PM, 29° out ice storm hailing & Tesla Robotaxi service has turned back on!
Waymo is offline & vast majority of humans are home in the storm
Ride 38 was still supervised but by far most impressive yet pic.twitter.com/1aUnJkcYm8
— David Moss (@DavidMoss) January 25, 2026
Tesla said last week that it was rolling out a controlled test of the Safety Monitor-less Robotaxis. Ashok Elluswamy, who heads the AI program at Tesla, confirmed that the company was “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader Robotaxi fleet with Safety Monitors,” and that “the ratio will increase over time.”
This is a good strategy that prioritizes safety and keeps the company’s controlled rollout at the forefront of the Robotaxi rollout.
However, it will be interesting to see how quickly the company can scale these completely monitor-less rides. It has proven to be extremely difficult to get one, but that is understandable considering only a handful of the cars in the entire Austin fleet are operating with no supervision within the vehicle.
Tesla has given its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent, as a new feature seems to show that the company is preparing for frequent border crossings.
Tesla owner and influencer BLKMDL3, also known as Zack, recently took his Tesla to the border of California and Mexico at Tijuana, and at the international crossing, Full Self-Driving showed an interesting message: “Upcoming country border — FSD (Supervised) will become unavailable.”
FSD now shows a new message when approaching an international border crossing.
Stayed engaged the whole way as we crossed the border and worked great in Mexico! pic.twitter.com/bDzyLnyq0g
— Zack (@BLKMDL3) January 26, 2026
Due to regulatory approvals, once a Tesla operating on Full Self-Driving enters a new country, it is required to comply with the laws and regulations that are applicable to that territory. Even if legal, it seems Tesla will shut off FSD temporarily, confirming it is in a location where operation is approved.
This is something that will be extremely important in Europe, as crossing borders there is like crossing states in the U.S.; it’s pretty frequent compared to life in America, Canada, and Mexico.
Tesla has been working to get FSD approved in Europe for several years, and it has been getting close to being able to offer it to owners on the continent. However, it is still working through a lot of the red tape that is necessary for European regulators to approve use of the system on their continent.
This feature seems to be one that would be extremely useful in Europe, considering the fact that crossing borders into other countries is much more frequent than here in the U.S., and would cater to an area where approvals would differ.
Tesla has been testing FSD in Spain, France, England, and other European countries, and plans to continue expanding this effort. European owners have been fighting for a very long time to utilize the functionality, but the red tape has been the biggest bottleneck in the process.
Tesla Europe builds momentum with expanding FSD demos and regional launches
Tesla operates Full Self-Driving in the United States, China, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.
Tesla winter weather test: How long does it take to melt 8 inches of snow?
Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor proves to be difficult
