Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Senior reporter Sean O’Kane popped over to Palo Alto to check out Rivian’s Autonomy & AI Day, which some insiders told us would be the company’s most important event. I’m not sure I would categorize it as such, but how about I let the journalist on the ground give his assessment? Via Sean (and a few of my thoughts sprinkled in) after the event … It was easy to get lost in the buzz words at times during Rivian’s “Autonomy & AI Day” this week. But there was a clear underlying message being shared: Rivian is trying to build a company that is about more than just selling cars. It’s not going as far as Tesla. For instance, there were no humanoid robots wandering around the company’s Palo Alto campus. But it is clearly building out other revenue-generating products — and advanced driver assistance is at the starting gates. Rivian’s hands-free version of its driver-assistance software — which today can be used on about 135,000 miles of road — will expand to 3.5 million miles and include surface streets. This expanded capability, which will launch in early 2026 and eventually include point-to-point hands-free (but eyes on) automated driving comes with a cost of $2,500 or $49.99 per month. Techcrunch event San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026 Then there is its future hands-off, eyes-off system. Rivian revealed it has developed its own custom 5nm processor, which it says will be built in collaboration with both Arm and TSMC. That chip will power Rivian’s “autonomy computer” — the backbone of an upgraded automated-driving system —that will debut in the R2 SUV in late 2026. That will probably be an upcharge, although Rivian didn’t say if it would be more than the $2,500 fee. But there’s another scenario we should also consider: licensing its tech to others. After all, Rivian already has a joint venture with Volkswagen Group to share its electrical architecture and base-level software. And Rivian spun out two startups this year with Also (mobility) and Mind Robotics (industrial AI and robotics). Barclays’ Dan Levy wrote Friday that “subsequent discussions reiterated hopes/potential” for Rivian to license its whole AV platform, or just components like the customs processor. And when I asked CEO RJ Scaringe if Rivian will sell the processor to Mind Robotics, he responded wryly: “It doesn’t take a lot of imagination.” At the most abstracted level, bolting new revenue lines to the existing car business (especially if those new projects play nice with the cars) makes sense. Who doesn’t love more money? Here’s our coverage of the event: Rivian is building its own AI assistant (deeper dive into the tech). And it is coming to its EVs in early 2026. Rivian goes big on autonomy with custom silicon, lidar, and a hint at robotaxis A little bird Image Credits:Bryce Durbin Nothing this week — or should I say, thanks for the tips, everyone, but there is nothing I can share yet. In the meantime, here’s a tiny tidbit to hold you over. As you read above, senior reporter Sean O’Kane was at Rivian’s AI & Autonomy Day and one of the whispers he heard was about the company’s public demo of its AI assistant and concerns it might not work. Apparently, the testing the morning of the event was a bit touch and go. Alas, the public demo went just fine after one tense moment at the start. The risks are high for public demos, which is why many companies avoid them. Kudos to Rivian for going for it. Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com. Deals! Image Credits:Bryce Durbin At the start of 2025, I didn’t think TechCrunch would publish an aviation-startup-meets-data-center story. But here we are. Aircraft startup Boom Supersonic kicked off 2025 by breaking the sound barrier with its XB-1 demonstrator civil aircraft. And it’s ending the year with a plan to sell a version of its turbine engine as a stationary power plant. Its first customer will be data center startup Crusoe. Under the deal, Crusoe will buy 29 of Boom’s 42-megawatt turbines for <head>.25 billion to generate 1.21 gigawatts for its data centers. Boom has raised $300 million to help commercialize this new business. The round was led by Darsana Capital Partners with participation from Altimeter Capital, Ark Invest, Bessemer Venture Partners, Robinhood Ventures, and Y Combinator. The plan is to use money from its Superpower stationary turbine business to fund the development of its supersonic aircraft. Other deals that got my attention … Self-driving trucks company Aurora Inno