Rivian's 2020 website promised level 3 autonomy for R1 models, but now they won't match Tesla Model 3's hardware upgrade program.
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Nothing sobers you up like digging through the Wayback Machine and finding the promises that were not kept. "WE'LL TAKE THE WHEEL, YOU TAKE IN THE SCENERY. Level 3 autonomy will be available on every Rivian vehicle. By allowing you to take your hands off the wheel and your eyes off the road, you’ll get to see more of the world as you cruise through it." Sounds dreamy, right? A vision of road trips kissed by silicon intelligence, freeing us from the monotony of the daily grind.
But for early Rivian adopters, the diehards who braved the pre-order purgatory and bought into a vision rather than a product, this quote hits differently. It feels less like a promise fulfilled and more like an artifact from a parallel timeline.
Revisiting the Lost Vision of Level 3 Autonomy
And now, here in 2025, the road ahead looks a little different. Tesla owners, disillusioned by Elon Musk’s increasingly erratic behavior, are defecting to Rivian in droves. The clean-sheet startup, once the fresh-faced antidote to Tesla's techno-cult theatrics, is now soaking up those disenchanted buyers like a sponge. The cabins are quieter, the design is crisper, and the vibe is refreshingly free of Dogecoin memes.
But with that influx comes a convenient amnesia about what Rivian once promised. Before Elon became a walking PR disaster, Rivian was pitching something bold, Level 3 autonomy baked into every vehicle. Not a dream, not a roadmap, a guarantee. And now, early buyers are left holding the bag.
Disillusionment, Defections, & the Future of EV Autonomy
Roll the clock back to 2020. Pandemic panic was just beginning, supply chains were coming apart at the seams, and Rivian’s tech page was still humming with ambition. That autonomy pitch wasn’t just a tagline, it was a declaration of intent. But as forum veterans will tell you, the R1T and R1S that showed up on driveways a year or two later weren’t equipped with the hardware that would make Level 3 autonomy possible.
“There were supply chain issues due to COVID,”
one owner noted.
“Rivian couldn't put in the cameras and tech they wanted to because it was either too expensive or unavailable due to the reduced production and factory shutdowns.”
A fair excuse, if we hadn’t all seen other automakers face the same chaos and at least try to make things right.
Rivian.. From Sports Car Dreams to Electric Adventure Vehicles
- The company initially aimed to produce a sports car but pivoted in 2011 to electric adventure vehicles, aligning with changing market demands.
- In 2017, Rivian acquired a former Mitsubishi plant in Illinois, dedicating time to retool and modernize the facility for electric vehicle production.
- Rivian invested years in designing and rigorously testing its R1T pickup and R1S SUV to ensure they met high standards for performance and durability.
The Pandemic’s Impact on Rivian’s Ambitious Autonomy Pitch
Tesla, for all its circus act of PR disasters, managed to handle this particular issue with a surprising degree of foresight. When hardware shortages hit, Tesla retrofitted early vehicles with new sensors at no cost to owners. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a gesture. Rivian, by contrast, has largely stayed silent. Their Driver+ system, still marketed with flourish, doesn’t come close to fulfilling that original promise. No retrofit programs. No transparency. Just a polite shrug, as if the pandemic swept away not just the supply chain but also the marketing copy that got people to click “Pre-Order” in the first place.
Tesla’s Rapid Response vs. Rivian’s Silent Stance: A Comparative Look at Hardware Shortages
One owner recently resurrected that 2020 promise via the Wayback Machine and posted it in the forums, sparking a fresh wave of frustration:
“I love my Rivian overall,” they wrote, “but I just found this in the Wayback Machine and wanted to revisit and show some of the newcomers that we were.
In fact, promised much more advanced autonomous driving in Gen 1 vehicles than what was ultimately delivered… Step it up Rivian!!!”
It's not bitterness, it’s a quiet, simmering betrayal. Early adopters weren’t just beta testers, they were believers. And now, they’re being asked to accept that a core part of the product pitch was simply a casualty of circumstance.
How Rivian Reacted to Covid
- In March 2020, Rivian proactively ceased operations across all its facilities to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, temporarily halting progress on the R1T and R1S production schedules.
- The pandemic-induced global supply chain crisis led to significant shortages of critical components, notably semiconductor chips. This scarcity disrupted Rivian's manufacturing timelines for the R1T and R1S models, causing delays in production and delivery schedules.
- Facing supply chain constraints, Rivian had to adapt its production strategies, including temporarily halting the production of Electric Delivery Vehicles. These challenges underscored the need for Rivian to refine its supply chain management to meet the demand for its R1T and R1S vehicles.
Resurrecting the 2020 Promise and the Call for Accountability
Of course, some will say, “What’s the point of bringing this up now? There’s nothing that can be done.” That’s one perspective. However, in this industry, acknowledgment is everything. If Rivian simply stood up and said, “Yes, we missed the mark, we’re working on a solution,” the temperature would drop significantly. Whether it’s a discounted retrofit, a loyalty credit, or even just a roadmap for future updates, there’s a way to keep good faith alive. But right now, Rivian’s stance reads like indifference, and that’s more damaging than any hardware delay.
Customer Remediation as the Key to Restoring Trust
Make no mistake: the future of autonomy is still very much on the horizon. Tesla, Mercedes, and even legacy manufacturers are inching toward hands-off, eyes-off driving. And Rivian? It’s still in the game. The engineering chops are there.
The brand goodwill, at least for now, is still salvageable. But they’re skating on thin ice. Broken promises are easier to forgive than forgotten ones. The OG Rivian crowd isn’t asking for miracles. Just some acknowledgment. Some accountability. And a reminder that for all the buzzwords and renderings, trust is the one component you can’t retrofit.
Image Sources: Wayback Machine, Rivian Media Center and rivianforums.com
Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.
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It sounds toe like tie…
It sounds toe like tie author is really digging here to try and paint Rivian as mismanaged. I own an gen1 R1S and so I'm one of the people who won't get the latest upgrade for autonomous driving capabilities that the gen2 models get. But here is the thing, RJ hasn't been out there over promising this to us and under delivering. I don't know any gen1 owner who is either upset or somehow feels like we were expecting to get the upgrades that the gen2 vehicles are getting. And I fully expect that gen3 vehicles at some point in the future will be able to do things that gen2 can't. It's just how technology works. It would be crazy to me to think they were going to retrofit gen1 with the necessary hardware that gen2 has given how substantial of an overhaul they have done to the entire underpinnings of the car. It simply doesn't make any sense.
So as an R1 owner, I simply don't share any of the frustrations of the author.
Ignore it, as they should. …
Ignore it, as they should. It is a non-issue.
You can read the statement different ways. I read it as aspirational, that they would eventually have Level 3 available in all vehicles - starting at some point. But even if you read it as an vehicles made, that was clearly not the case by the time deliveries started.
Shit happens, things change. You should buy vehicles based on what they do, not what they may be capable of doing, someday, maybe.
And, unlike Tesla, Rivian didn't sell full-automomy at a huge added cost and failed to deliver for over a decade.
RJ already reconfirmed that…
RJ already reconfirmed that promise in the 2022 when they invited people to the plant. I'm not sure why you're reporting they won't when the latest software release has already been confirmed to be coming to Gen1 as well.
Seriously? The author is…
Seriously? The author is spot on it was all over their website and promised for years - I bought this car fully expecting hands-off autonomy like their website said.
There's a really critical…
There's a really critical difference between Rivian and Tesla (speaking as an owner of both), when I bought my Tesla, I paid $5k for a line item that said "full self driving". Show me a bill of sale for a Rivian with something similar on it, and I'll agree that they should replace the hardware to deliver on this so called "promise".
Rivian Gen1 vehicles are…
Rivian Gen1 vehicles are still getting upgrades to Driver+.
Elon was promising Teslas would have full autonomy back in 2015, if not earlier. They were selling it as an add on, above and beyond autopilot. Not one of those HW1 Model S & X vehicles was eligible for an upgrade, free or otherwise.
Even later HW2 and above vehicles are limited in what can be upgraded and will never be as capable as HW4. And here we are, ac decade later, and Tesla has yet to deliver what they have been promising and selling, at great expense, all this time.
I'm sure there are some Gen1 Rivian owners who are unhappy, but from what I've seen in the community the vast majority are unbothered. This is a sad attempt to create controversy where there is none.
Tesla won't upgrade the…
Tesla won't upgrade the hardware either. HW3 still doesn't have FSD v13 despite HW4 getting I think 5-6+ major point version updates while HW3 vehicles got 2 virtually useless to the actual performance of FSD updates. And HW3 only support shipping late 2023, so it's barely 2 years old and functionally obsolete by Tesla for current FSD models already.
Just imagine being a pre HW3 owner. Sure some hot the HW2 OR HW2.5 upgrade for free or $1-1.5k. But they can't do the full AI models properly and are even more screwed than the HW3 crowd. Now things are going to fragment a ton more because the new model Y will start using HW5 In the not to distant future, and suddenly a bunch of HW4 facelift model Y's may be obsolete despite being model year 2026.
It's a fun scan Tesla runs.
Noah, this piece reads more…
Noah, this piece reads more like an opinionated rant. Rivian did backpedal on early PRE-delivery promises, though publicly admitted the first gen models wouldn’t get hardware upgrades. But throwing in that “claim” about Tesla owners defecting in droves over Musk’s erratic behavior, with no evidence, feels like cheap sensationalism. At least bring some facts or keep it even. Rivian and Tesla both make a great product. Overall a disappointing read.
What a load of utter crap…
In the limited amount of hours and miles Tesla has "autonomously driven, there has been 100's of accidents and over 50 deaths attributed to the Tesla's fault.
44 resulted in the occupants of the Tesla burning to death or being killed by an the high voltage discharge then burning.
Tesla's unproven self-driven ability using just a camera & software was found to allow a Tesla to drive into a wall painted to look "roughly" like roadway, like some scene form a Wile Coyote cartoon.
I'd rather wait for a reliable lidar equipment configuration then have one that is done half-assed.
Waymo has nearly 50 times (millions of miles) the amount of official miles in fully autonomous self-driving mode, but has only had two accidents. Both, lets be clear, both were NOT the Waymo's fault. Both were caused by the Waymo being hit not it hitting another vehicle.
In Phoenix, hundreds of Waymo are on the road, zipping around without any driver. No one is behind the wheel at anytime.
Tesla has made ultimately unproven claims and looking at its poor existing record, it isn't like I could say safe.
To claim a Rivian isn't good because you have to drive it is more than a little stupid.
Let's remember, Chevy, Ford, Mazda, BMW, etc, etc, don't have any self-driving vehicles. Are all combustion & EV manufacturers then just worthless who aren't Tesla?