Rivian considers making its own lidar sensors, potentially through partnership with Chinese firm

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said in a Reuters interview on Tuesday that the automaker is considering making its own lidar sensors and could do so in partnership with a Chinese firm, rather than buying directly from a Chinese supplier.

Rivian is in 'active discussions' with lidar firms and is considering making lidar sensors in the United States using Chinese technology, possibly through a joint venture. The effort might also include other automakers seeking to develop production capacity in the United States or outside China.

Rivian is committing 'many hundreds of millions of dollars' to its custom chip program; the first chip, called the Rivian Autonomy Processor (RAP-1), arrives this year, with RAP-2 and RAP-3 successors planned on more powerful chip technology than the 5-nanometer process used for RAP-1.

A version of Rivian's R2 vehicles coming later this year will include lidar sensors (devices that help self-driving vehicles gain a three-dimensional view of the road), which on Rivian's demonstration vehicles are much smaller than the large spinning units found on Waymo robotaxis.