AUSTIN, TEXAS - MARCH 12: A Rivian R2 electric vehicle drives over a dirt obstacle course set up on Congress Avenue during the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals in Austin on Thursday, March 12, 2026. Festivalgoers could ride in the vehicles as part of Rivian's Electric Joyride demonstration. (Jay Janner/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)Austin American-Statesman via Getty ImagesRivian is promising a lot down the road. Here's what to expect.Rivians are software-defined vehicles, like Teslas. That means R1 and R2 get regular over-the-air (OTA) updates. For example, a recent Rivian recall was fixed through an OTA software update. It also means the Rivian you buy today is future-proofed. For example, coming updates will make Rivians more autonomous. And that's what separates Rivian from legacy carmakers – who even now (late 2026) don't seem to fully grasp the import of software and OTAs and the magic of unlocking new features.I take this seriously as someone who tests a variety of driver assist systems. But so do investors. Morgan Stanley said last month in a research note that Rivian "autonomy remains one of the more meaningful longer-term sources of upside." For me, regular software updates mean better autonomy and, ultimately, a better driving experience.Future R2Present: Today, every R2 and Gen 2 R1 is capable of Universal Hands-Free and Lane Change on Command. On the highway, that boils down to adaptive cruise control + lane centering + driver-initiated automatic lane changes. In short, the car handles a lot of the highway driving. (For more, see my R2 review.) On city streets, autonomy – as of October 2026 – is limited, however. I tried it with the R2 on Santa Monica Blvd. but gave up because I found it was safer* to just drive the car myself in heavy traffic. The good news is, city street autonomy will improve via OTA updates.Future is Point-to-Point. In the simplest terms, point-to-point means an R2 will be a driver-supervised self-driving car on the highway and in the city. Here's what Rivian says on its website: "Enter an address and supervise while your vehicle follows the route from start to finish, handling city streets, highway interchanges and everything in between." Of course, this won't happen all at once. As with any software-defined vehicle this will happen with a series of updates over time.Future upgrades – not all R2s are equal? But here's where it gets a little murky. "A limited [point-to-point] rollout begins later this year, with a widespread customer rollout targeted for 2027," Rivian says on its website. What's causing some confusion is that the future R2 will be getting hardware upgrades that will not be retrofitted to the R2 being currently delivered. That includes LiDAR and an updated Rivian autonomy computer.The question is, will the hardware-upgraded R2 (and other Rivians) be appreciably more capable? "We don't expect a noticeable difference between LiDAR and non-LiDAR vehicles for some time," Rivian spokesperson Tanya Miller told me in an email. "LiDAR-equipped vehicles will initially help strengthen the data flywheel for our Large Driving Model, with learnings and improvements that benefit the entire Gen 2+ fleet, regardless of sensor suite," she said, referring to a self-reinforcing loop where cars on the road collect driving data that data trains a better Large Driving Model.Miller continued: "So I wouldn't characterize current R2s as receiving a lesser version of point-to-point. There is a very high ceiling for continued autonomy progress on the hardware in those vehicles today."My Take:Rivian is serious about autonomy and creating a car that's truly a computer on wheels. Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) can add some context here. There are Teslas with HW3 (Tesla Hardware 3) and newer ones with HW4. A Tesla with HW4 is more capable than one with HW3. That's just the naked reality of how computers work, and cars are now computers. So, I expect Rivians being delivered today to be capable of point-to-point. But it's the same question that every iPhone user asks: buy the iPhone 18 or wait for the 19?