Rivian Opens Invite-Only Testing of Point to Point, Its Route-Long Hands-Free Driving
Invitations started October 15 for Gen 2 R1 and R2 owners in California and Florida on a paid Autonomy+ plan. Expect weekly testing, camera sharing, and 30-day safety checks.
Rivian has started inviting a small group of R1 and R2 owners into an Autonomy Early Access Program, and the first thing they will test is Point to Point, a hands-free mode that follows an entire navigation route instead of just holding a lane. The catch: the invitation comes with an NDA, mandatory camera and location sharing, and a safety review every 30 days.
Invitations began going out on a rolling basis on October 15, according to Rivian's program FAQ. The program starts in California and Florida, and Rivian says interest logged from other states will decide where it expands next. Today's Universal Hands-Free already covers more ground than most rivals, as our comparison of every hands-free system shows, and Point to Point is the next step up.
Who qualifies, and who doesn't
Eligibility is narrow. Rivian lists US-market R1 Gen 2 and R2 vehicles with an active, paid Autonomy+ plan. The 60-day Autonomy+ trial that comes with every delivery does not count. First-generation R1S and R1T owners are out, and so is Canada, even though Universal Hands-Free works there.
Autonomy+ runs $49.99 a month or $2,500 as a one-time purchase that stays with the vehicle, per Rivian's Autonomy+ page. Owners who are not selected will not get a rejection email; their interest stays on file for later phases.
Within the eligible pool, Rivian says it picks drivers based on how often they already use Autonomy features and on a clean recent safety record, which it defines to include forward collision warnings and actual collision events. It also balances the group by region and model. Only the primary owner sees the Early Access tile in the rivian.com account; a secondary driver logging in won't.
What participants sign up for
This is a working beta, not a perk. Participants must use the preview features weekly, log issues from the vehicle as they happen, complete a monthly survey, and make themselves available for interviews or focus groups. The Participation Agreement requires turning on data collection, including location and camera data sharing, and everything about the features and the program falls under an NDA.
Nobody gets paid. Rivian re-verifies safety and participation roughly every 30 days and says membership can be revoked at its discretion. Canceling Autonomy+, selling the vehicle, or failing a check ends participation. The primary owner is also responsible for telling every other driver of the vehicle what it is enrolled in. A Connect+ subscription is not required, which is worth noting after Rivian put the R2's Pet Cam behind that paywall earlier this month.
What Point to Point actually does
Rivian describes Point to Point as Universal Hands-Free tied into turn-by-turn navigation: the vehicle follows the active route through turns, highway transitions, and city streets. The company says it runs on a 360-degree multi-modal sensor array and its Large Driving Model. On Gen 2 hardware that means 10 HDR cameras, five radars, and an onboard computer Rivian rates at 200 trillion operations per second.
It is still a supervised Level 2 system. Rivian's own footnote says the driver must stay attentive and ready to take over at all times, and the current Universal Hands-Free does not stop for traffic lights or stop signs. Rivian hasn't said whether Point to Point changes that.
The timeline has two layers. The Autonomy+ page targets a December delivery to Early Access participants, while the FAQ says late 2026, with a broad rollout to all Gen 2 R1 and R2 subscribers in 2027. At an Evercore investor forum on September 29, James Philbin, Rivian's SVP of Autonomy and AI, said the initial rollout was on track for year-end, with the full Autonomy+ fleet to follow a little later next year.
What Rivian hasn't disclosed: how many owners get in, whether Autonomy+ pricing changes once Point to Point goes wide, and which states come after California and Florida. The next likely checkpoint is Rivian's second Autonomy and AI Day on December 9 in San Francisco. In the meantime, R2 owners weighing the subscription can see how the SUV stacks up in our R2 vs. Model Y comparison, where Tesla's FSD costs twice as much per month and is also supervised.
