Rivian has been sued for allegedly making false claims about the autonomous driving capabilities of its R1T truck and R1S SUV models.
The class-action complaint, filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Central District of California, focuses on the first-generation R1T and R1S models and says Rivian represented that the flagship vehicles would be capable of hands-free, eyes-free driving.
This type of ability is also called Level 3 autonomy, which is the name of the Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) which means that the car can automatically control the steering, acceleration, and braking without the driver’s hands on the wheel or eyes on the road in certain situations such as highways or low speed. This does not mean that these vehicles are completely autonomous; the human driver is still expected to stay alert and take action when necessary.
The lawsuit alleges that Rivian falsely promised, over a five-year period and in a coordinated nationwide marketing campaign, that it would make its hands-free driver assistance system – known as Driver+ – standard on all vehicles it makes. Among the appearances cited in the suit: Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe’s appearance at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, where he reportedly made presentations about the company’s autonomous driving ambitions.
“No software update – no matter how sophisticated – will make its Gen 1 vehicles perform as advertised,” the complaint reads. “There is no doubt that Rivian knew that its Gen 1 vehicles would not be autonomous or ‘hands-free driving’ but continued to tout the capabilities of its vehicles to entice consumers to buy them.”
Rivian declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing a pending lawsuit.
The lawsuit, which includes three plaintiffs, makes claims against Rivian for fraud, defamation, and unjust enrichment. Coleman Law and Tycko & Zavareei, the law firms representing the plaintiffs, requested a mistrial.
It wouldn’t be the first time Rivian faced a successful legal challenge. Last year, the company agreed to pay $250 million to settle a shareholder class action lawsuit filed after it suddenly raised prices on its R1 pickup truck and SUV for 2022.
Rivian’s first generation R1T and R1S vehicles do not offer hands-free driving. Its second-generation cars, which were redesigned in 2024, did. The second-generation cars look the same, but Rivian has revised the interior, including the battery pack and suspension system, electrical architecture, interior seats, and sensor stack.
As part of the redesign, the second-generation R1 cars are equipped with the “Rivian Autonomy Platform,” which comes standard and includes 11 cameras, five radar sensors, and a computer 10 times more powerful than the previous system, the company told TechCrunch at the time.
The advanced driver assistance system in the second model first includes adaptive cruise control, which maintains the speed and distance behind vehicles on the highway, and highway assist that is able to steer, brake and accelerate on highways.
Last year, Rivian introduced “Universal Hands-Free” driving using advanced software on the second generation R1 cars. 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 roads, as long as there are visible lane lines.
Rivian isn’t the only automaker to face legal challenges over promises to bring self-driving features. Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk have spent a decade saying their cars will be fully autonomous with their Full Self-Driving software. Some owners have accused Tesla of failing to deliver unsupervised Full Self-Driving.
Tesla has also come under legal scrutiny over claims about the capabilities of its FSD and Autopilot advanced assistance systems. The California Department of Motor Vehicles filed charges that Tesla violated state law by deceptively marketing Autopilot, its basic advanced driver assistance system, and its more powerful Full Self-Driving software. A judge ruled in favor of the DMV, but the agency decided in February not to suspend Tesla’s sales and production licenses, a 30-day fine it chose to waive because the EV maker stopped using the word “Autopilot” in its California marketing.
If you shop through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
