Rivian is taking the beta-tester route to self-driving, and it is starting small. The company opened its Autonomy Early Access Program in October, inviting a limited number of owners to try Point to Point, a supervised feature that lets the vehicle handle turns, highway merges, and surface streets along a planned route.

Any Gen 2 R1 or R2 owner with an active paid Autonomy+ subscription can apply to the program, and there is no pay for taking part. James Philbin, Rivian's senior vice president of Autonomy and AI, said the company was tracking toward a year-end launch for this first public preview, ahead of a wider rollout in 2027.

Point to Point builds on Rivian's existing Universal Hands-Free system by wiring it directly into turn-by-turn navigation. Instead of just holding a lane hands-free, the vehicle follows an entire route. It manages merging and turns at street-level under driver supervision the whole way.

The system relies on a 360-degree sensor suite paired with Rivian's own Large Driving Model, the software that interprets what the cameras and sensors see and decides how the vehicle should respond. That is still Level 2 driver assistance, a system that requires the driver to stay attentive and ready to take over.

Rivian is pointing to a broader release for all Autonomy+ subscribers in 2027, after this early group has run the feature through real-world use. Gen 1 R1 trucks and Canadian owners are excluded from this initial phase entirely.

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