Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Rivian's new R two is rolling off the line in Normal, Illinois.
Speaker 2: Big milestone for the company. It's a smaller, more affordable
Speaker 2: suv and for many this is the vehicle that will
Speaker 2: define Rivian's path to profitability. The company continues to burn
Speaker 2: through cash. Joining us now from the factory is CEO RJ. Scaringe,
Speaker 2: who has driven quite a few R twos off the
Speaker 2: line already today. It's a big moment, but our j
Speaker 2: we should point out that on Friday the facility was
Speaker 2: hit by a tornado, by a big storm. There was
Speaker 2: damage to certain parts of the factory. What was the
Speaker 2: net result of that? Is everyone okay? And has there
Speaker 2: been any material impact to the start of production plan?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, of course, of course, you can't plan
Speaker 1: for these kinds of things, and we didn't expect a
Speaker 1: tornado to hit Friday night, but you know, the teams
Speaker 1: responded really well. Fortunately everyone was safe. We followed our
Speaker 1: protocols as soon as we knew there are tornadoes in
Speaker 1: the area. But yeah, tornado went through the south end
Speaker 1: of the plant and ripped the roof off the building
Speaker 1: and knocked down some of the some of the plants
Speaker 1: as well, and so the last you know, seventy two
Speaker 1: hours have been around the clock. You're getting all the
Speaker 1: water out of the facility and getting ready to rebuild
Speaker 1: the south end. But you know, it's like the ultimate
Speaker 1: example of resilience of the business where the teams have
Speaker 1: come together and we still had vehicles come off the
Speaker 1: line this morning.
Speaker 2: Is the plan still the same You can get through
Speaker 2: the same kind of ramp strategy that you had the
Speaker 2: same volumes in that initial output.
Speaker 1: Yeah, our ramp up this week and into next week.
Speaker 1: We're not making changes to the plan. We're obviously having
Speaker 1: to make some accommodations for the fact that a big
Speaker 1: it's the logistics area of the plant and so the
Speaker 1: way that Materira was flowing into the plant through the
Speaker 1: dock doors is not to come in in a different way.
Speaker 3: But you know, we're working through it. We're working through it.
Speaker 4: What's interesting is orders demand configuration r Jay. What do
Speaker 4: people want and how willingly are they putting in the orders?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm as you said, I drove a
Speaker 1: bunch of our twos off the line today. I've been
Speaker 1: driving in our two for a while and the car
Speaker 1: is just incredible. It's the combination of the package, the
Speaker 1: driving dynamics, the efficiency of course, the design, and just
Speaker 1: the aesthetic feel. So we're really excited to get folks
Speaker 1: into it. There's a tremendous amount of enthusiasm. We've had
Speaker 1: a few events where we've hosted potential customers to experience it.
Speaker 1: And you know, we were in Denver a couple of
Speaker 1: days ago and there's like a super long line just
Speaker 1: to sit in the car.
Speaker 3: So we'd love to see the enthusiasm.
Speaker 1: And I can't wait to continue to ramp up production
Speaker 1: and start seeing these on the road.
Speaker 4: I mean, I loved Ed's enthusiasm when he came to
Speaker 4: have a look at your in How's AI chip? And
Speaker 4: I'm interested is where therefore that vertical integration comes in.
Speaker 4: You're also including light O. Look there, there's a roadmap
Speaker 4: for these variants. When does that enter production?
Speaker 1: ALJ so our in house silicon, which is an eight
Speaker 1: hundred tops per ship.
Speaker 3: We have two of those chips in the vehicle and
Speaker 3: we couple that with.
Speaker 1: Cameras, radar and a lighter that sits at the top
Speaker 1: of the windshield that comes in at the end of
Speaker 1: this year and so our launch edition still has a
Speaker 1: very highly capable self driving platform, which is essentially a
Speaker 1: further development of what's in our our one vehicle now.
Speaker 1: But across the vehicle, you know, our two just represents
Speaker 1: so many learnings for us as a business, whether it's
Speaker 1: the drive line, the power electronics, just the way it's
Speaker 1: being built in terms of cost and cost efficiency, and
Speaker 1: so there's there's like not a there's not a detail
Speaker 1: in the car that hasn't been thoughtfully evolved or developed
Speaker 1: relative to what we've done in our one.
Speaker 2: Oh Jae, I want to go a bit more specific
Speaker 2: on what carry is talking about. The story with R
Speaker 2: two has changed a little bit. I think you'll probably
Speaker 2: thinking about an autonomous future a bit more than you were.
Speaker 2: But the idea was to get close to that forty
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars mark a vehicle for the masses. You
Speaker 2: start with a premium and more expensive variant, but what
Speaker 2: are you seeing in the demand pockets for getting to
Speaker 2: a lower price point that is where you want to
Speaker 2: take on the established lowems.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, Well, the average price of a new car
Speaker 1: in the United States is about fifty thousand dollars, and
Speaker 1: so really important US as we're developing R two is
Speaker 1: recognizing we wanted to be right in that range, and
Speaker 1: so having a variant that starts at forty five and
Speaker 1: then going up to our top spec for the performance
Speaker 1: version with all the kit for the interior is at
Speaker 1: fifty seven.
Speaker 3: It allows us to really nicely straddle that.
Speaker 1: And of course, you know, launching any product, you have
Speaker 1: the decision of what do you launch first? You launch
Speaker 1: the base BAC midspec topspec right, and it's impossible to
Speaker 1: sort of make everyone happy with when you have a
Speaker 1: launch edition. We decided to launch with the premium spec,
Speaker 1: but we'll be introducing like a middle like a midspec vehicle,
Speaker 1: and then the forty five thousand R version will come thereafter.
Speaker 1: But that all rolls out over roughly the next year,
Speaker 1: and you know, there's so much enthusiasm for the product
Speaker 1: that we're very like, we feel really confident with the
Speaker 1: way we've configured the specifications and even the pricing. We
Speaker 1: feel quite strong that we've we've priced it appropriately, especially
Speaker 1: when you look at the capabilities and then the cross
Speaker 1: shop of what other vehicles are in the space.
Speaker 2: I've experienced the R two that does have the ld
Speaker 2: R and the in house silicon, and it's so interesting
Speaker 2: there's going to be a generation of R twos that
Speaker 2: don't have it. I know that you said they're very
Speaker 2: capable with the Nvidia silicon and without lid R, but
Speaker 2: that's a big call to make, right. Is there any
Speaker 2: flexibility to accelerate the timing of where you can start
Speaker 2: production on the R two line in Illinois and bring
Speaker 2: in that gear, because what you're pitching for the autonomous capabilities,
Speaker 2: even the advanced driver assistance capabilities of our two, they
Speaker 2: are predicated on that next gen gear.
Speaker 1: Well, the launch edition still has a very high ceiling,
Speaker 1: and so this will get to and our Gen two
Speaker 1: R one will also do this. Later this year will
Speaker 1: start to roll out point to point level two, so
Speaker 1: I meaning hands off wheel, eyes on road, but you
Speaker 1: type the address and the car completely drives you there.
Speaker 1: And then into next year we'll start to roll out
Speaker 1: level three, so hands off, eyes off for specific domains
Speaker 1: in this case, you know, starting with highways. And that
Speaker 1: will be true for Gen two of R one, It'll
Speaker 1: be true for the launch edition of R two, and
Speaker 1: will of course be true for the variant of the
Speaker 1: vehicle that has the higher compute stack and more capable perception.
Speaker 1: And what that more capable perception is going to allow
Speaker 1: for is a higher ceiling of what the vehicle can
Speaker 1: ultimately achieve, and so it'll achieve higher levels capability. And
Speaker 1: importantly it serves as a really valuable part of our
Speaker 1: data flywheel. And so think of the R two fleet.
Speaker 1: It's a high volume product as being part of training
Speaker 1: are what we call our large driving model, and the
Speaker 1: existence of a light our plus the enhanced inference just
Speaker 1: allows us to do a better job of capturing lots
Speaker 1: and lots of driving miles to train our model.
Speaker 4: Look, other automakers are probably looking at that flywheel. Ah Jay,
Speaker 4: I'm really interested in some of the hints we're getting
Speaker 4: some of the coverage in the markets about discussions to
Speaker 4: license your software, your autonomy stack, your underlying technology to
Speaker 4: other automakers.
Speaker 2: Is that in the works?
Speaker 3: Well, I think in the fullness of time.
Speaker 1: You know, when you look at what we're building as
Speaker 1: a business, there's really two revenue opportunities. One is we
Speaker 1: continue to grow by selling vehicles, So of course R
Speaker 1: two is the embodiment of that, that's what we're driving towards.
Speaker 1: But there's another element of our business, which is leveraging
Speaker 1: the technology we're developing. And the first example that was
Speaker 1: what we did with Volkswagen. We did a five point
Speaker 1: eight billion dollar software licensing deal and that allows us
Speaker 1: to deploy this is not our self driving but our
Speaker 1: compute stack and our software platform, our os across a
Speaker 1: wide range of electric vehicles within the Volkswagen portfolio. And
Speaker 1: so we're excited about the potential to do more deals
Speaker 1: like that with our operating system in the vehicle, with
Speaker 1: our vehicle, and certainly as we think about autonomy, the
Speaker 1: potential that's there for us also license that in the
Speaker 1: long term.
Speaker 4: Ravian CEO RJ scarrange. We'll let you get back to
Speaker 4: those R twos that are rolling off the shop floor.
Speaker 4: We so appreciate your time today from an annoying