AI Daily: Rivian reveals AI chip for future vehicles

Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly:

IN-HOUSE AUTONOMY PROCESSOR: While speaking during the company’s first Autonomy and AI Day, Rivian (RIVN) CEO RJ Scaringe announced “significant breakthroughs” in vertically integrated automotive technology. The company unveiled its proprietary, purpose-built silicon, outlined its roadmap for next-generation vehicle autonomy, and introduced an evolved software architecture underpinned by artificial intelligence. “At the core of Rivian’s technology roadmap is the transition to in-house silicon, designed specifically for the vision-centric physical AI. The first generation Rivian Autonomy Processor is a custom 5nm processor that integrates processing and memory onto a single multi-chip module, the company says. In addition to ACM3, Rivian plans to integrate LiDAR into future R2 models. The company introduced its Large Driving Model, a foundational autonomous model trained like a Large Language Model. Utilizing Group-Relative Policy Optimization, the LDM will distill driving strategies from massive datasets into the vehicle. Rivian announced its autonomy subscription, Autonomy+, with continuously expanding capabilities, launching in early 2026 and priced at $2,500 (one-time) or $49.99 (per month). Rivian also detailed plans to continuously improve the autonomy capabilities of its Gen 2 R1 and future R2 vehicles, with a clear trajectory including point-to-point, eyes off and personal L4. Rivian is harnessing AI across the business with the Rivian Unified Intelligence, the company added. The shared, multi-modal and multi-LLM data foundation is helping the company develop new features, improve service infrastructure, and even power predictive maintenance,” the company stated.

GPT-5.2: OpenAI stated, “We are introducing GPT-5.2, the most capable model series yet for professional knowledge work. Already, the average ChatGPT Enterprise user says AI saves them 40-60 minutes a day, and heavy users say it saves them more than 10 hours a week. We designed GPT-5.2 to unlock even more economic value for people; it’s better at creating spreadsheets, building presentations, writing code, perceiving images, understanding long contexts, using tools, and handling complex, multi-step projects. GPT-5.2 sets a new state of the art across many benchmarks, including GDPval, where it outperforms industry professionals at well-specified knowledge work tasks spanning 44 occupations.”

AI GLASSES: William Blair took a “sober look” at Warby Parker’s (WRBY) partnership with Google (GOOG, GOOGL). In the early days, “maybe” Google’s artificial intelligence glasses can research $20M in annual sales, “but certainly not in 2026,” the firm tells investors in a research note. Blair says it has heard of “some relatively aggressive assumptions” on what the Google partnership with Warby Parker for AI-enabled glasses could contribute from a revenue and margin standpoint in recent weeks. The firm analyzed the potential for the glasses relative to the partnership between Meta (META) and EssilorLuxottica for the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. Blair points out that EssilorLuxottica has 55-times the amount of physical stores compared to Warby Parker. At an average price point of $450, assuming the Google AI glasses are priced competitively to Ray-Ban Meta, this would support total unit sales of 45,000, Blair estimates.

NEW CHIEF: Google is naming Amin Vahdat, who leads the company’s AI and infrastructure team, to the new role of chief technologist for AI infrastructure, Semafor’s Reed Albergotti reports. With the appointment, Vahdat will become one of 15 to 20 people reporting directly to CEO Sundar Pichai.

SELF-DRIVING SYSTEM: Nissan Motor (NSANY) is making its boldest move yet to challenge Tesla (TSLA) in autonomous driving, as it seeks to undercut Elon Musk’s company with $4,000 “self-driving” system by early 2028, Automotive News’ Urvaksh Karkaria reports. Nissan is testing an AI-powered eyes-on, hands-off driving system in an electric Ariya prototype, shown.