Plaintiffs claim the company overstated the capabilities of the R1T and R1S.
Hiroshi-Mori-Stock/Shutterstock Rivian has been sued on allegations that it made misleading statements about the self-driving capabilities of its R1T truck and R1S SUV.
According to the class action complaint brought by Rivian customers, the first-generation models of these vehicles are not capable of the offering the self-driving potential that the company had promised. The plaintiffs argued that Rivian represented that those early models would be capable of level 3 autonomous driving, meaning the vehicle would be able to steer, accelerate and break without driver action.
"In reality, Rivian manufactured its Gen 1 Vehicles without the hardware, cameras, sensors, and compute to enable hands-free driving and/or Level 3 autonomous operation," the complaint states. "No software update — no matter how sophisticated — will enable its Gen 1 Vehicles to perform as advertised. Rivian unquestionably knew that its Gen 1 Vehicles would never be capable of Level 3 autonomy or 'true hands-free driving' yet continued to tout the supposed capabilities of its vehicles to induce consumers to purchase them."
Rivian introduced its " universal hands-free driving " software update late last year. The tech was made available for the company's R2 collection of electric vehicles and the second generation of its R1 lineup.
When contacted by TechCrunch , Rivian declined to offer comment on the pending case.