Rivian is considering manufacturing its own lidar sensors in the United States, potentially through a partnership with Chinese firms, as the EV maker aggressively vertically integrates its entire autonomous driving stack.
The move would add in-house lidar production to an autonomy strategy that already includes custom silicon chips and proprietary AI software — positioning Rivian as one of the most vertically integrated players in autonomous driving outside of Tesla and Waymo.
Rivian eyes domestic lidar production
According to a Reuters exclusive, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe confirmed the company is in “active discussions” with lidar firms about producing sensors domestically rather than buying directly from Chinese suppliers.
The rationale is straightforward: Chinese companies like Hesai Group and RoboSense dominate the market for affordable, compact lidar sensors. But buying directly from Chinese suppliers raises national security concerns among U.S. lawmakers, creating supply chain risk for any automaker relying on the technology.
Scaringe told Reuters that “all the real choices are coming out of China” at the price point automakers need — in the low hundreds of dollars per sensor. Rather than abandon lidar entirely, Rivian is exploring manufacturing in the U.S. using Chinese technology, possibly through a joint venture.
The effort could extend beyond Rivian alone. Scaringe indicated that other automakers are thinking about shared production capacity outside China, suggesting a potential consortium approach to domestic lidar manufacturing.
A full-stack autonomous driving company
The lidar move is the latest signal that Rivian is building one of the most comprehensive in-house autonomous driving programs in the industry. Over the past six months, the company has assembled nearly every piece of the autonomy puzzle internally.
At its inaugural AI & Autonomy Day in December 2025, Rivian unveiled the RAP1 — a custom 5nm processor delivering 1,600 trillion operations per second of AI compute. The chip uses Arm’s v9 architecture with 14 high-performance cores and is 2.5x more power-efficient than Rivian’s previous systems.
Rivian’s Gen 3 Autonomy platform packs 11 cameras (65 megapixels total), five radars, and one lidar sensor — giving it one of the most comprehensive sensor arrays of any consumer vehicle in North America.
The company’s Large Driving Model (LDM) is trained similarly to large language models, aiming for Level 4 fully autonomous driving capabilities. Adding in-house sensor manufacturing would give Rivian control over virtually every hardware and software component of its autonomy system.
Uber’s $1.25 billion vote of confidence
The most significant external validation of Rivian’s autonomous driving ambitions came in March 2026, when Uber announced a partnership to deploy up to 50,000 Rivian R2 robotaxis across 25 cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe — backed by up to $1.25 billion in investment.
The deal is milestone-based: Uber committed an initial $300 million, with the remaining investment contingent on Rivian achieving specific autonomous performance benchmarks through 2031. The first robotaxis are expected in San Francisco and Miami by 2028.
What makes this partnership notable is that there is no third-party autonomy software involved. Rivian handles everything — chips, sensors, software, and vehicle platform. That is rare in an industry where most robotaxi deployments rely on specialized autonomy companies layering software onto third-party vehicles.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently offered his most direct endorsement of Rivian’s capabilities, praising the company for “putting together a first-class AI team” and expressing confidence they can deliver on the R2 robotaxis.
The competitive picture
Rivian’s approach contrasts sharply with other players in the autonomous driving space. Tesla relies solely on cameras and in-house chips, rejecting lidar entirely. Waymo uses a multi-sensor approach but buys components from suppliers. Most traditional automakers partner with autonomy startups rather than building in-house.
Rivian’s strategy most closely resembles what Tesla did with its FSD computer — designing custom hardware specifically optimized for its own software — but with the addition of lidar and radar sensors that Tesla has explicitly rejected.
The timeline is ambitious. Rivian plans hands-free driving this year and eyes-free capability in 2026, with fully autonomous Level 4 targeted for the 2028 Uber deployment. That is a compressed schedule by any measure.
Electrek’s Take
Rivian’s autonomy push has gone from interesting side project to genuine industry contender over the last twelve months. Custom chips, proprietary AI, a massive robotaxi deal with Uber, and now potential in-house lidar manufacturing — this is a company that is clearly spending aggressively to own the entire autonomous driving stack.
The lidar manufacturing angle is particularly smart. The geopolitical tension around Chinese sensors is real, and any automaker relying on Chinese lidar suppliers faces regulatory risk, but they are leading both in cost and production volumes.
By potentially manufacturing domestically using Chinese technology through a JV, Rivian threads the needle — getting access to the best sensor technology while mitigating supply chain and political risk.
The big question remains execution. Rivian is still burning cash, only recently started R2 production, and is now attempting to simultaneously launch a new vehicle, develop Level 4 autonomy, design custom chips, and potentially manufacture its own sensors. That is an enormous amount of parallel development for a company of Rivian’s size.
But the Uber deal provides both capital and accountability. Milestone-based investment means Rivian has to hit specific autonomous performance targets to unlock funding. If they can deliver, they will have built something that very few companies in the world have achieved: a fully vertically integrated autonomous electric vehicle platform.
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