Rivian has been sued over claims the EV maker made false claims about the self-driving capabilities of its R1T truck and R1S SUV models.
The class-action complaint, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, focuses on the first-generation models of the R1T and R1S and alleges that Rivian claimed those iconic vehicles could be driven without hands, without eyes.
This type of ability is also called Level 3 autonomy, named after the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) which means the vehicle can handle steering, acceleration and braking automatically without the driver’s hands on the wheel or eyes on the road in certain conditions, such as on highways or at low speeds. This does not mean that these vehicles are fully autonomous. The human driver is expected to remain alert and take over when necessary.
The lawsuit alleges that Rivian falsely promised, over a five-year period and through a coordinated nationwide marketing campaign, that it would make the hands-free driver assistance system — known as Driver+ — standard on every vehicle it makes. Among the appearances cited in the suit: Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe’s appearance at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, where he allegedly made statements about the company’s self-driving ambitions.
“No software update — no matter how sophisticated — will allow its Gen 1 vehicles to perform as advertised,” the complaint states. “Rivian undoubtedly knew that its Gen 1 vehicles could never achieve Level 3 autonomy or ‘true hands-free driving’, yet it continued to advertise the supposed capabilities of its vehicles to entice consumers to buy them.”
Rivian declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing pending litigation.
The suit, which includes three named plaintiffs, makes claims against Rivian for fraud, negligent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment. Coleman Law and Tycko & Zavareei, the law firms representing the plaintiffs, requested a jury trial.
It would not be the first time Rivian has faced a successful legal challenge. Last year, the company agreed to pay $250 million to settle a shareholder class action brought after it suddenly raised prices on its 2022 R1 truck and SUV.
Rivian’s first-generation R1T and R1S vehicles do not offer hands-free driving. The second-generation vehicles, which were revised in 2024, do. The second-generation vehicles look the same, but Rivian has revamped their internals, including the battery pack and suspension system, as well as the electrical architecture, interior seats and sensor stack.
As part of the refresh, second-generation R1 vehicles were equipped with the “Rivian Autonomy Platform,” which comes standard and includes 11 cameras, five radar sensors and a computer that’s 10 times more powerful than the previous system, the company told TechCrunch at the time.
The advanced driver assistance system on second-generation models initially included adaptive cruise control, which maintains speed and distance behind vehicles on the highway, and a highway assist function that automatically steers, brakes, and accelerates on select highways.
Last year, Rivian introduced “Universal Hands-Free” driving through a software update pushed to second-generation R1 vehicles. The feature allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel on more than 3.5 million miles of roads in the United States and Canada, including a mix of freeways and surface roads, as long as lane lines are visible.
Rivian isn’t the only automaker facing legal challenges over promises to offer self-driving features. Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk have spent a decade claiming that its vehicles would be fully autonomous through its Full Self-Driving software. Some owners have sued Tesla for failing to deliver Unsupervised Full Self-Driving.
Tesla has also come under regulatory scrutiny over claims about the capabilities of its advanced driver assistance systems FSD and Autopilot. The California Department of Motor Vehicles filed charges that Tesla violated state law by misleadingly marketing Autopilot, its basic advanced driver assistance system, as well as its more capable Full Self-Driving software. A judge ruled in favor of the DMV, but the agency decided in February not to suspend Tesla’s sales and manufacturing licenses, a 30-day penalty it chose to waive because the EV maker stopped using the term “Autopilot” in its California marketing.
This article was originally published at 11 am. PT.
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