Rivian Is Giving Some Owners Early Access To Its Latest Hands-Free Driving Tech

Point-to-point hands-free driving is coming to a select number of owners who are willing to put in the work.

Rivian Universal Hands Free

Photo by: Rivian

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Oct 19, at 9:42am ET

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Rivian is launching the Autonomy Early Access Program.
Through it, select owners will get to test the startup’s upcoming driver-assistance features.
The first important feature is point-to-point hands-free driving, which will debut on a small scale in late 2026, followed by a wider rollout next year.

Rivian’s self-driving ambitions are inching closer to reality, and the startup is asking owners to help test the latest features before rolling them out to a wider audience.

The California EV maker has launched the Autonomy Early Access Program, an invitation-only project that will put select drivers at the top of the list when it comes to next-generation assistance systems, starting with point-to-point hands-free driving in late 2026.

Rivian's latest EVs offer Universal Hands-Free driving capabilities, but the cars can't automatically navigate from point A to point B.

Photo by: Rivian

To gain access, there’s a solid list of requirements, and Rivian is not paying anyone to participate. In fact, one of the criteria to get invited is to have an active Autonomy+ subscription, which costs $49.99 per month or $2,500 for lifetime access.

All new R1S and R1T deliveries include a 60-day trial, but trials are not eligible for the new early access program. The same goes for the first-generation R1T and R1S, also known as Gen 1, simply because they don’t come with the necessary hardware for Rivian’s latest vision-based system. The latest hardware suite includes 10 high-definition cameras and five radars, which enables the vehicles to perceive objects and vehicles up to 1,000 feet away.

To get started, all owners with an active Autonomy+ subscription can apply to join the Autonomy Early Access Program in their Rivian account. The project is currently onboarding owners in California and Florida, with more areas to follow. However, once an owner is accepted, they can use the pre-release features on any supported road in the United States, not just in their state.

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Rivian will review all applications and send invitations to owners who make the cut starting on October 15, 2026. To be considered for the early access program, owners need to have high Autonomy feature usage and a clean recent safety record, including forward collision warnings, true collision events, and other safety-related metrics. The startup said that it will also balance the group by region, vehicle model, and other factors.

That’s not all, though. Rivian is asking participants to actively use the preview features every week and log issues when they occur. Data collection must be enabled, including location and Camera Data sharing, and owners who are accepted into the program are required to participate in mandatory monthly surveys. One-on-one interviews or focus groups are also a requirement.

In other words, it’s quite a lot of work for people who get accepted. On top of it all, Rivian will review all participants every 30 days, and memberships can be revoked at any time, which removes access to pre-release features.

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The first big feature included in the early access program is point-to-point hands-free driving, which is scheduled for limited release in late 2026, followed by a wider rollout to second-gen R1 EVs and the new R2. According to Rivian’s website, two Autonomy+ features will be added this year: Auto Parking and On-Ramp to Off-Ramp, which will follow the set route while on the highway. The company is expected to offer more details on its automated driving plans during the Autonomy & AI Day event on December 9.

Even with the upcoming features, Rivian’s driver assistance systems still require driver supervision. They’re hands-off, but not eyes-off, just like Tesla’s so-called Full Self-Driving (Supervised).

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