Rivian opens invite-only Point to Point self-driving beta to R1 and R2 owners in two states

Rivian has begun an invite-only early access programme for Point to Point, a supervised driver-assistance feature that lets its vehicles handle turns, highway merges and surface streets along a planned route. The Autonomy Early Access Program opened in October, and Rivian is targeting a year-end launch for this first public preview ahead of a wider rollout in 2027.

The first cohort is limited to Gen 2 R1 and R2 owners in California and Florida, and participation is free for anyone with an active paid Autonomy+ subscription.

How Point to Point differs from Universal Hands-Free

Point to Point builds on Rivian's existing Universal Hands-Free system by wiring it directly into turn-by-turn navigation. Where the earlier system holds a lane hands-free, the new feature follows an entire route, managing merging and street-level turns with the driver supervising throughout.

It runs on a 360-degree sensor suite paired with Rivian's own Large Driving Model, the software that interprets camera and sensor input and decides how the vehicle should respond. Despite the autonomy branding, this remains Level 2 driver assistance: the driver must stay attentive and ready to take over at any moment.

That distinction matters for buyers. Level 2 means the human remains legally and practically in charge, so Point to Point is a convenience feature rather than a hands-off system. Rivian's decision to recruit beta testers instead of shipping to everyone reflects how much refinement supervised driving software still needs in real-world conditions.

Who can apply, and what testers must give up

Owners register interest through an Autonomy Early Access tile on their Rivian.com account. The tile appears only for the primary account holder, which could trip up households where someone else drives the R2 day to day.

An invite is not simply a matter of owning the right vehicle in the right state. Rivian says it weighs how often an owner already uses Autonomy features, the owner's recent safety record including forward-collision warnings, and it keeps a mix of regions and vehicle models in the test group.

Selected participants take on real obligations. Rivian requires weekly use of the preview features, issue reports logged through the vehicle's own interface, and a monthly survey on the experience. Testers also agree to share location and camera data under a non-disclosure agreement, and Rivian can reassess who stays in the programme every 30 days and drop participants without warning. None of this comes with compensation.

The data-sharing terms are the sharpest trade-off. Handing over continuous location and camera footage is a lot to ask for software that is still being refined, and it is the kind of condition most owners would refuse outside a beta programme.

Which states come next

Rivian has not named the states that will follow California and Florida, nor how large future cohorts will be. The company says interest expressed from outside those two states will help decide where Point to Point rollout details go next, and owners can leave their interest on file rather than reapplying later.

James Philbin, Rivian's senior vice president of Autonomy and AI, said the company was tracking toward the year-end launch for this first public preview, with the broader rollout set for 2027.

The wider context

Rivian is not alone in pushing supervised driving features onto public roads through staged programmes, but its approach is unusually demanding of testers: weekly usage, logged reports, monthly surveys and continuous data sharing, all unpaid.

For drivers, the practical effect is that Point to Point remains a limited, experimental feature for now. Buyers outside California and Florida cannot get it in this first wave regardless of subscription status, and even eligible owners face a selection process based on usage habits and safety records rather than order of application.

Green SM has begun operating in Los Angeles with a fleet of 500 VinFast VF8 electric SUVs, marking the Vietnamese ride-hailing company's first entry into the United States. The service launched on October 13 and its cars and drivers are already active across Los Angeles County, with coverage extending south into Orange County.

What sets the launch apart from Uber and Lyft is ownership: Green SM owns every vehicle in the fleet outright and staffs them with 500 full-time employees rather than independent contractors using their own cars.

How the service works

Every car in the launch fleet is a five-seat VinFast VF8, and each completed ride produces zero tailpipe emissions. Riders can summon a car through the Green SM app, by calling the company's hotline, or by hailing one on the street. Fares scale by time and distance, and early coverage compares typical trip costs to Uber Comfort pricing.

Green SM lists airport runs among its intended US services, but neither the company nor Los Angeles World Airports has publicly detailed when, or under what permit, its cars might serve Los Angeles International Airport.

To attract first-time users, new customers get 50 percent off, up to $12 per ride, on their first five trips, plus a Green Pass membership carrying 10 monthly vouchers worth 30 percent off, up to $10 per ride. The company says it will keep recruiting and training local drivers as demand grows.

The employee-driver model

Each of the 500 Los Angeles drivers is a company employee who goes through the same selection, training and onboarding process before picking up a rider. Green SM supplies the car, the maintenance and the training, and the driver works a shift instead of logging into an app at will.

US chief executive Hoang Thanh Hang said the approach is more than a fleet swap, describing the company's aim as building trust with customers, drivers and local communities "one journey at a time," and calling service quality and intentional customer interactions "the other half of the equation". That pitch rests on predictable schedules and employer-backed benefits in place of the variable earnings typical of gig work.

The model carries real costs that gig platforms push onto drivers: Green SM buys, insures and maintains every car and pays a full-time workforce whether or not demand fills the schedule. Whether fares pegged near Uber Comfort pricing can cover that overhead at 500 cars is the commercial question the launch has to answer.

A crowded Southern California market

Green SM arrives in a market where electric and autonomous ride services are already expanding. Waymo's fully driverless Waymo One service has been open to all riders in Los Angeles since November 12, 2024.

The company says it has completed roughly 850 million rides globally, a network that began in Vietnam in 2023 before spreading across Asia and into Europe.

The fleet also gives Angelenos a way to sample VinFast vehicles. The brand debuted in the United States in 2023 and is the most popular automaker in Vietnam, but it has yet to gain much traction stateside. Secondary reports citing S&P Global Mobility data describe an analyst estimate of about 389 new VinFast US vehicle registrations between January and July 2026.

Car and Driver's own review of a 2023 VF8 raised qualms about handling, suspension and fit and finish, though the publication notes VinFast appears to have addressed some of those issues in newer US models. For the automaker, 500 cars carrying paying passengers around the country's second-largest city amount to a moving showroom, and the feedback riders give could shape how Americans judge a brand most have only read about.