Rivian’s autonomous system is getting a major upgrade—its efficiency is set to improve nearly 25-fold.
Rivian has announced significant progress in its autonomous driving technology. At its Autonomy and AI Day event in Palo Alto, the company unveiled a new universal driver-assist system called UHF, which will cover more than 3.5 million miles of roads in the U.S. and Canada.
The UHF system is set to launch later this month for the second-generation R1 and will be included in the free 2025.46 software update. Unlike the current Enhanced Highway Assist, which operates on roughly 135,000 miles of pre-mapped roads, the new system analyzes traffic and road conditions in real time and works on both highways and regular roads—provided lane markings are present.
UHF does not rely on mapping data and instead uses second-generation sensors. The update will be available only for the next-gen R1T and R1S models; earlier R1 versions do not support the required architecture. Hardware includes Rivian’s proprietary RTK GNSS system with up to 8 inches of accuracy, 10 cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 5 radars, and a high-precision GPS module.
Upon release, UHF will fully replace Enhanced Highway Assist and continue to evolve, with features like traffic light and stop sign recognition expected within the year.
In the long term, Rivian aims to achieve Level 4 autonomy, supported by its in-house chipset and LiDAR technology, which will debut on the R2 models at the end of 2026.