Rivian's Vidya Rajagopalan on the Move to Custom Chips, Combating Tech Fatigue, and More

What does it actually take to build a software-defined vehicle, one that gets smarter over time and may eventually drive itself? Rivian has a specific answer to that question, and Craig Cole and co-host Sam Abuelsamid put it to Vidya Rajagopalan, Senior VP of Electrical Hardware at Rivian, to find out what it actually looks like in practice. The conversation covers the company’s zonal architecture strategy that stripped 44 pounds of copper from Rivian's vehicles, why the company is designing its own chips the way Apple does, and whether UHF, Rivian's hands-free driving feature, is a genuine step beyond geo-fenced systems like GM's Super Cruise or Ford's BlueCruise. Plus: is a car that can do all of this actually too smart for its own good?

Chapters

0:00 - Introduction

4:32 - Software-Defined Vehicles & Zonal Architecture

12:40 - How Much Tech Is Too Much Tech?

18:23 - Why Rivian Is Building Its Own Chip

25:57 - Autonomy Plus & Universal Hands-Free (UHF)

33:05 - Serviceability & Licensing Rivian's Tech

38:10 - Three for the Road

41:21 - Conclusions

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