Founder, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Rivian
Search every verified Robert Scaringe interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. RJ Scaringe, founder and CEO of Rivian, has been promoting the company’s upcoming R2 electric SUV, which he described as a lower-priced vehicle starting at $45,000 that “captures and embodies what is Rivian.” At the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival, he highlighted features such as a rear drop glass and said he hopes the R2 will “inspire more choices from other manufacturers” to help electrification reach 100% of new vehicle sales. Scaringe also discussed a $1.25 billion deal with Uber to deploy R2-based robo-taxis starting in 2028 in Miami and San Francisco, and a $5.8 billion software licensing agreement with Volkswagen Group. He stated that he began a robotics company called Mind Robotics last year, focused on human-like manufacturing robots, which has raised over $1 billion and plans to deploy its first robots at Rivian in early 2027. On earnings calls in 2025 and 2026, Scaringe noted that Rivian was increasing production capacity for its Georgia plant to 300,000 units annually, and described the company’s autonomy platform as a key focus. He also remarked that he believes “the biggest shift to transportation… is the shift to vehicles being able to drive themselves.”
“We actually did a $5.8 billion software licensing deal with Volkswagen, which is a really cool thing for me cuz I grew up as a car enthusiast. I loved Porsches and Volkswagens specifically. And so, it's now see our power our software and some of our electronics making their way across the portfolio of products within V...”
“We announced that it was a $1.25 billion deal we did with Uber. We're deploying robo-taxis. So, the R2 product in a robo-taxi form starting in 2028. First two cities will be Miami and San Francisco, but over the next, you know, few years following that, we'll roll out across a number of big cities, 25 different big cit...”
“The question we were trying to solve and what what I was focused on is how do we how do we create a transportation system that will work in a 100 years or in 200 years and the the challenge we have as a society is our current transportation system is it's causing without question some of the biggest challenges we face...”
“We I'm excited about it. It's uh if I were to look at the risk of Rivian success today versus the risk a year ago versus the risk 5 years ago, I would say at this moment, this is the lowest risk we've ever had in terms of success. We have $17 billion in cash. We have incredible demand on the consumer products. We have...”
“We actually did a $5.8 billion software licensing deal with Volkswagen, which is a really cool thing for me cuz I grew up as a car enthusiast. I loved Porsches and Volkswagens specifically. And so, it's nice to see our tech our software and some of our electronics making their way across the portfolio of products withi...”
“We announced that as a $1.25 billion deal we did with with Uber. We're deploying robo-taxis. So, the R2 product in a robo-taxi form starting in 2028. First two cities will be Miami and San Francisco, but over the next, you know, few years following that, we'll roll out across a number of big cities, 25 different big ci...”
“The biggest shift to transportation, as big as electrification may seem, is not actually electrification. It's the shift to vehicles being able to drive themselves.”
“Every car company in the world has three choices. The first choice is they could decide to ignore that and shrink. So they could lose market share... They could decide to develop those technologies in house... or third they could go buy it from a third party.”
“So, when I it's it's interesting the the sort of maybe surprising or wild part is when I started Rivian, I thought it would take a lot of money. I didn't I didn't have any money, but I thought this is going to take I think about a billion dollars. And that And everyone be like, 'Oh, it's you won't spend that much money...”
“I think it's like a shame to to have the company be sold right now. It just feels like it's like if this is a metaphorical fruit tree, it's like we're picking the very first piece of fruit before it's even partially ripe. So the company's got so much growth in front of it.”
“I knew it would be difficult. It wasn't something I said this is going to be an easy path. There's certainly been aspects that are much harder. Uh but but a lot of the elements of building any business ring true within Rivian whether you're looking at team building, organizational structure design, processes, tool sets...”
“This is one of the things that's maybe most unique about building a car company is you have um when you really look honestly at what's necessary, you need many thousands of people to develop one product. That product requires we estimate on the order of about 40 million different decisions to bring it to life.”
“I often describe like a car company as an exercise in enabling highly distributed decision-making that's highly coordinated which are two things that maybe don't always you know go together you know thousands of people making decisions but it needs to come out as a product that looks as if one brain one human did every...”
“I remember making that decision and this was when Rivian was still much younger and we had not a lot of money and our board said to me, 'RJ, you're like you're crazy. Like you want to build computers and write all the software yourself.' And I said, 'Yeah, of course.' And I said, 'This, trust me.' And I was very convic...”
“We did a $5.8 billion software licensing deal with the second largest car company in the world with Volkswagen Group. And this was after Volkswagen Group had spent an enormous amount of money trying to build software architecture themselves. And what drove us to say yes to doing this wasn't just the the the financials...”
The NYC is a proud supporter of the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival and I'm pleased to be joined here by R.J scaring he's CEO of ...
When you consider the risk of doing business, it doesn’t get much bigger than starting a car company: competition is formidable, startup costs are in the billions, and very few people believe you can pull it off. That’s the massive challenge RJ Scaringe walked into in 2009, when he launched his truck and SUV company, Rivian. To add to the risk, RJ wanted to build fully electric vehicles while attracting drivers who’d never bought them, so he knew his trucks had to be fun and sporty: appealing in their own right. Rivian’s journey has taken RJ from an old warehouse in Florida to a massive Midwes…
The NYC is a proud supporter of the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival and I'm pleased to be joined here by R.J scaring he's CEO of ...
Joining me this week is RJ Scaringe, founder & CEO of Rivian, the electric automaker backed by Amazon and Volkswagen.
RJ Scaringe, American engineer, businessman, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian and Mind Robotics, joins Chris Evans at the top of the tower to discuss his company's rise to prominence since it was incorporated in 2009. He also talks about Rivian's new model: The R2, and explains what motivates him to deliver cost-effective electric vehicles and why he thinks it is a success...PLUS he reveals what is his favourite cars of all time are - and you may be surprised!! #electric #electricvehicle #car #cars #unitedstates #rivian #motoring 📷 Virgin Ra…
RJ Scaringe is the founder and CEO of Rivian Automotive. Masters of Scale Host Jeff Berman digs into how Scaringe thinks about competing with Tesla, the hard won lessons of building a company that makes both vehicles and software, and how the company is scaling to fuel the highly anticipated launch of its newest electric vehicle: The R2. This Masters of Scale Live event, sponsored by Atlassian, was recorded at Atlassian Team 2026 in Anaheim. Chapters: 00:00 Introducing RJ Scaringe 01:12 Coordinating thousands of people around one product vision 04:59 Learning to let go as the company outgrow…
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