Rivian says its cars will be able to run third-party AI agents

Rivian says its cars will eventually be able to run AI agents from other companies, such as Anthropic. CEO RJ Scaringe said at TechCrunch Disrupt that the automaker still needs to build the integration and coordinate it with AI labs; the company has not given a timeline and pointed to its “AI & Autonomy Day” event in December for more details.

Rivian already offers a voice assistant and says it has built its own framework to choose between local and cloud models when interpreting requests such as adjusting the temperature or turning on the seat warmers. Scaringe said external agents would not control safety-critical functions such as braking or steering. Instead, the idea would be for the car to use context from conversations drivers have had with those assistants on other devices. As of May, Rivian’s agent could already access external apps such as Google Calendar.