Rivian has been sued over allegations that the EV maker made false claims about the autonomous driving capabilities of its R1T truck and R1S SUV models.
The class action complaint, which was 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 claims that Rivian represented that these flagship vehicles would be capable of hands-free, eyes-off driving.
This kind of capability is also called Level 3 autonomy, a designation by the Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) that means the vehicle can automatically handle steering, acceleration, and braking without the driver’s hands on the wheel or eyes on the road in certain conditions such as highways or at low speeds. This doesn’t mean these vehicles are fully autonomous; the human driver is still expected to stay attentive and take over when necessary.
The lawsuit alleges Rivian falsely promised, over a five-year period and through a coordinated nationwide marketing campaign, that it would make its hands-free driver assistance system — known as Driver+ — standard in every vehicle it builds. Among the appearances cited in the suit: Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe’s appearance at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, where he reportedly made representations about the company’s autonomous driving ambitions.
“No software update — no matter how sophisticated — will enable its Gen 1 Vehicles to perform as advertised,” the complaint reads. “Rivian unquestionably knew that its Gen 1 Vehicles would never be capable of Level 3 autonomy or ‘true hands-free driving’ yet continued to tout the supposed capabilities of its vehicles to induce consumers to purchase them.”
Rivian declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing pending litigation.
The lawsuit, 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, have requested a jury trial.
It wouldn’t be the first time Rivian has faced a successful legal challenge. Last year, the company agreed to pay $250 million to settle a class action shareholder lawsuit filed after it suddenly hiked prices on its R1 pickup truck and SUV in 2022.
Rivian’s first-generation R1T and R1S vehicles do not offer hands-free driving. Its second-generation vehicles, which were overhauled in 2024, do. The second-generation vehicles look materially the same, but Rivian revamped their internals, including the battery pack and suspension system, the electrical architecture, interior seats, and sensor stack.
As part of the revamp, the second-gen R1 vehicles were equipped with the “Rivian Autonomy Platform,” which comes standard and includes 11 cameras, five radar sensors, and a computer that is 10 times more powerful than the previous system, the company told TechCrunch at the time.
The advanced driver assistance system in the second-gen models initially included adaptive cruise control, which maintains speed and distance behind vehicles on the highway, and a highway assist feature that automatically steers, brakes, and accelerates on select highways.
Last year, Rivian rolled out “Universal Hands-Free” driving via a software update pushed out to second-gen 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 highways and surface streets, as long as there are visible lane lines.
Rivian isn’t the only automaker to face legal challenges over promises to deliver self-driving features. Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk have spent a decade claiming that its vehicles would be fully autonomous via 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 for claims about the capabilities of its FSD and Autopilot advanced driver assistance systems. The California Department of Motor Vehicles filed accusations alleging Tesla violated state law by deceptively marketing Autopilot, its basic advanced driver-assistance system, as well as its more capable Full Self-Driving software. A judge ruled in the DMV’s favor, but the agency decided in February not to suspend Tesla’s sales and manufacturing licenses, a 30-day penalty it opted to forgo because the EV maker has stopped using the term “Autopilot” in its California marketing.
This article originally published at 11 am PT.
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