News
Stealth EV startup Rivian adds McLaren and Nike execs to lead development
Rivian, the stealthy, Michigan-based electric vehicle (EV) startup, is taking large steps forward in their new vehicle development program. The company recently added two new executives, Mark Vinnels and Rob Williams.
Mark Vinnels joined Rivian in November as Executive Director of Engineering and Programs, and oversees the development of Rivian’s vehicle platform. Vinnels was formerly the Executive Director of Product Development and Programme Director at McLaren Automotive. Vinnels joined McLaren in 2004 to lead the development of McLaren’s first road car since the infamous F1. Before joining McLaren, Vinnels was head of Lotus’s new vehicle programs and oversaw the Elise, Exige, and Europa new vehicle lines. Vinnels is also credited for his instrumental role in the development of GM’s Family 1 engine program.
Mark Vinnels, Rivian’s new Executive Director of Engineering & Programs at Rivian Automotive. (Credit McLaren Automotive)
While at McLaren, Vinnels helped the company grow its engineering division from roughly 50 engineers to 550 and significantly increased its vehicle lineup.
Rivian’s team also includes another former McLaren executive, Anthony Sheriff, who joined Rivian’s Board of Directors in 2016. Sheriff was the Managing Director of McLaren Automotive from 2003-2013, a period in which McLaren created a road car division in addition to the company’s rich history in the automotive racing arena. Sheriff was an executive at Fiat before his tenure at McLaren and also sits on the Board of Directors for electric supercar manufacturer Rimac.
Also joining Rivian is Rob Williams as Chief Creative Officer. Williams carries experience from both the automotive industry and the footwear industry. He was most recently a Senior Design Director of Footwear at Nike and spent four-and-a-half years at Chrysler. During his time as a product designer at Chrysler, he led several designs of Chrysler SUVs and Dodge Trucks.
Williams joins Jeff Hammoud, Director of Vehicle Design. Hammoud has extensive experience at Fiat-Chrysler and left the company as Chief of Design of the Jeep Brand. Hammoud joined Rivian in May 2017, followed by Williams in June.
Based on a combination of the design team’s backgrounds and patents released by Rivian last summer, it appears that Rivian’s first vehicle could be some sort of SUV. An in-depth analysis of Rivian’s design team members’ LinkedIn profiles reveals that nearly half of the team has experience with Fiat Chrysler Automotive (Formerly Chrysler), with many specializing in SUV/Truck designs.
Rivian’s Patent for “Reconfigurable Electric Vehicles”. It’s worth noting that patents do not usually reflect a vehicle’s actual planned design, rather the mechanism that the company is patenting. (Credit: Public Patent Filing)
Rivian currently has 225 employees, up from 115 at the start of the year. Other notable additions to Rivian’s team include 15 former Faraday Future employees. Faraday Future is nearly defunct after it continued to miss its wildly ambitious goals and saw its main financier’s global expansion fall apart. Most of the team from Faraday is working on Rivian’s autonomous driving technology or other highly technical roles.
The timeline for Rivian’s massive 2.6 million-square-foot manufacturing facility on the west side of Normal is still unknown. Rivian purchased the factory in January 2017 for $16 million, including all of the contents in the factory.
While Rivian hasn’t revealed many details about the development of its all-electric vehicle platform, the company revealed today that it has received a large strategic investment from New York-based Sumitomo Corporation of Americas (SCOA).
Rivian’s CEO RJ Scaringe couldn’t comment directly on the details of the investment, but did say the following to AdaptBN: “We are honored and excited to have Sumitomo as a strategic investor. Their global reach, expertise, and network in the automotive sector will help us in executing our vision. This investment reflects the result of our team’s hard work in developing our technology and products.”
Due to the level of mystery surrounding Rivian’s plans and product line, local residents and officials have begun comparing it to the likes of “Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.” But only time will tell if Rivian holds a golden ticket to the future.
Elon Musk
What is Digital Optimus? The new Tesla and xAI project explained
At its core, Digital Optimus operates through a dual-process architecture inspired by human cognition.
Tesla and xAI announced their groundbreaking joint project, Digital Optimus, also nicknamed “Macrohard” in a humorous jab at Microsoft, earlier this week.
This software-based AI agent is designed to automate complex office workflows by observing and replicating human interactions with computers. As the first major outcome of Tesla’s $2 billion investment in xAI, it represents a powerful fusion of hardware efficiency and advanced reasoning.
At its core, Digital Optimus operates through a dual-process architecture inspired by human cognition.
Macrohard or Digital Optimus is a joint xAI-Tesla project, coming as part of Tesla’s investment agreement with xAI.
Grok is the master conductor/navigator with deep understanding of the world to direct digital Optimus, which is processing and actioning the past 5 secs of…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2026
Tesla’s specialized AI acts as “System 1”—the fast, instinctive executor—processing the past five seconds of real-time computer screen video along with keyboard and mouse actions to perform immediate tasks.
xAI’s Grok model serves as “System 2,” the strategic “master conductor” or navigator, providing high-level reasoning, world understanding, and directional oversight, much like an advanced turn-by-turn navigation system.
When combined, the two can create a powerful AI-based assistant that can complete everything from accounting work to HR tasks.
Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI
The system runs primarily on Tesla’s low-cost AI4 inference chip, minimizing expensive Nvidia resources from xAI for competitive, real-time performance.
Elon Musk described it as “the only real-time smart AI system” capable, in principle, of emulating the functions of entire companies, handling everything from accounting and HR to repetitive digital operations.
Timelines point to swift deployment. Announced just days ago, Musk expects Digital Optimus to be ready for user experience within about six months, targeting rollout around September 2026.
It will integrate into all AI4-equipped Tesla vehicles, enabling parked cars to handle office work during downtime. Millions of dedicated units are also planned for deployment at Supercharger stations, tapping into roughly 7 gigawatts of available power.
Oh and it works in all AI4-equipped cars, so your car can do office work for you when not driving.
We’re also deploying millions of dedicated Digital Optimus units in the field at Superchargers where we have ~7 gigawatts of available power.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 12, 2026
Digital Optimus directly supports Tesla’s broader autonomy strategy. It leverages the same end-to-end neural networks, computer vision, and real-time decision-making tech that power Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and the physical Optimus humanoid robot.
By repurposing idle vehicle compute and extending AI4 hardware beyond driving, the project scales Tesla’s autonomy ecosystem from roads to digital workspaces.
As a virtual counterpart to physical Optimus, it divides labor: software agents manage screen-based tasks while humanoid robots tackle physical ones, accelerating Tesla’s vision of general-purpose AI for productivity, Robotaxi fleets, and beyond.
In essence, Digital Optimus bridges Tesla’s vehicle and robotics autonomy with enterprise-scale AI, promising massive efficiency gains. No other company currently matches its real-time capabilities on such accessible hardware.
It really could be one of the most crucial developments Tesla and xAI begin to integrate, as it could revolutionize how people work and travel.
News
Tesla adds awesome new driving feature to Model Y
Tesla is rolling out a new “Comfort Braking” feature with Software Update 2026.8. The feature is exclusive to the new Model Y, and is currently unavailable for any other vehicle in the Tesla lineup.
Tesla is adding an awesome new driving feature to Model Y vehicles, effective on Juniper-updated models considered model year 2026 or newer.
Tesla is rolling out a new “Comfort Braking” feature with Software Update 2026.8. The feature is exclusive to the new Model Y, and is currently unavailable for any other vehicle in the Tesla lineup.
Tesla writes in the release notes for the feature:
“Your Tesla now provides a smoother feel as you come to a complete stop during routine braking.”
🚨 Tesla has added a new “Comfort Braking” update with 2026.8
“Your Tesla provides a smoother feel as you come to a complete stop during routine braking.” https://t.co/afqCpBSVeA pic.twitter.com/C6MRmzfzls
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 13, 2026
Interestingly, we’re not too sure what catalyzed Tesla to try to improve braking smoothness, because it hasn’t seemed overly abrupt or rough from my perspective. Although the brake pedal in my Model Y is rarely used due to Regenerative Braking, it seems Tesla wanted to try to make the ride comfort even smoother for owners.
There is always room for improvement, though, and it seems that there is a way to make braking smoother for passengers while the vehicle is coming to a stop.
This is far from the first time Tesla has attempted to improve its ride comfort through Over-the-Air updates, as it has rolled out updates to improve regenerative braking performance, handling while using Full Self-Driving, improvements to Steer-by-Wire to Cybertruck, and even recent releases that have combatted Active Road Noise.
Tesla holds a unique ability to change the functionality of its vehicles through software updates, which have come in handy for many things, including remedying certain recalls and shipping new features to the Full Self-Driving suite.
Tesla seems to have the most seamless OTA processes, as many automakers have the ability to ship improvements through a simple software update.
We’re really excited to test the update, so when we get an opportunity to try out Comfort Braking when it makes it to our Model Y.
News
Tesla finally brings a Robotaxi update that Android users will love
The breakdown of the software version shows that Tesla is actively developing an Android-compatible version of the Robotaxi app, and the company is developing Live Activities for Android.
Tesla is finally bringing an update of its Robotaxi platform that Android users will love — mostly because it seems like they will finally be able to use the ride-hailing platform that the company has had active since last June.
Based on a decompile of software version 26.2.0 of the Robotaxi app, Tesla looks to be ready to roll out access to Android users.
According to the breakdown, performed by Tesla App Updates, the company is preparing to roll out an Android version of the app as it is developing several features for that operating system.
🚨 It looks like Tesla is preparing to launch the Robotaxi app for Android users at last!
A decompile of v26.2.0 of the Robotaxi app shows some progress on the Android side for Robotaxi 🤖 🚗 https://t.co/mThmoYuVLy
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 13, 2026
The breakdown of the software version shows that Tesla is actively developing an Android-compatible version of the Robotaxi app, and the company is developing Live Activities for Android:
“Strings like notification_channel_robotaxid_trip_name and android_native_alicorn_eta_text show exactly how Tesla plans to replicate the iOS Live Activities experience. Instead of standard push alerts, Android users are getting a persistent, dynamically updating notification channel.”
This is a big step forward for several reasons. From a face-value perspective, Tesla is finally ready to offer Robotaxi to Android users.
The company has routinely prioritized Apple releases because there is a higher concentration of iPhone users in its ownership base. Additionally, the development process for Apple is simply less laborious.
Tesla is working to increase Android capabilities in its vehicles
Secondly, the Robotaxi rollout has been a typical example of “slowly then all at once.”
Tesla initially released Robotaxi access to a handful of media members and influencers. Eventually, it was expanded to more users, so that anyone using an iOS device could download the app and hail a semi-autonomous ride in Austin or the Bay Area.
Opening up the user base to Android users may show that Tesla is preparing to allow even more users to utilize its Robotaxi platform, and although it seems to be a few months away from only offering fully autonomous rides to anyone with app access, the expansion of the user base to an entirely different user base definitely seems like its a step in the right direction.
What is Digital Optimus? The new Tesla and xAI project explained
Tesla adds awesome new driving feature to Model Y
