The Latest Rivians Just Got

• Rivian on Thursday announced a big software update. 
• It includes “Universal Hands-Free,” Rivian’s new driver-assistance feature. 
• The update also brings a new phone key and off-road features.

Last week, Rivian announced “Universal Hands-Free,” its most advanced driver-assistance feature yet and—the startup claims—a key milestone on the road to highly automated features. 

On Thursday, the EV maker started rolling out Universal Hands-Free to second-generation R1S and R1T drivers via its 2025.46 software update. The release delivers a bunch of other upgrades as well, mostly for Gen 2 owners. 

Universal Hands-Free

This feature takes Enhanced Highway Assist, Rivian’s existing hands-off highway-driving feature, and expands it to far more roads. Before, Rivian invited owners to take their hands off the wheel (while keeping their eyes on everything) on 135,000 miles of approved freeways in North America. 

Now that’s grown to over 3.5 million roads of all kinds—highways, rural roads, city streets and anything else. “If the lane lines are clearly marked, you can engage it,” Rivian said in a blog post on Thursday. 

Rivian Universal Hands-Free

Photo by: Rivian

Assuming the system works well, that capability blows features like General Motors Super Cruise (750,000 miles of divided highways) and Ford BlueCruise (130,000 miles) out of the water. To make this possible, Rivian says it stopped depending on high-definition maps for its automated features. This feature is much more reliant on what the car actually senses about its environment. 

Since Universal Hands-Free doesn’t stop at traffic lights or stop signs—it pilots the car within a lane while responding to the speed of traffic—there are probably many roads where it’s not that useful, like dense city streets with lots of action. But it does seem helpful for the routes that get you from the city to and from the highway. I’m eager to try it out and see how it performs in the real world. 

Rivian R1T and R1S drivers get a 60-day free trial of Universal Hands-Free to start. After that, they’ll have to pay $49 a month or $2,500 up front for continued access through Rivian’s new Autonomy+ offering.  

That’s probably the biggest update in Rivian’s latest software release. But there are a few other upgrades that are worth mentioning. 

New Autonomy-Related Features

We learned all about Universal Hands-Free at Rivian’s Autonomy and AI Day event earlier this month. Rivian’s blog post revealed some additional autonomy-related features we didn’t hear about then.

Rivian is launching “Autonomy Drive Styles” across its driver-assistance features, similar to what Tesla offers for Full Self-Driving (Supervised). 

Here’s how Rivian describes the three options:

• Mild: a relaxed style with more gap distance and more gradual lane changes.
• Medium: a balanced style to manage cut-ins and accelerate with traffic flow.
• Spicy: a more dynamic style with a tighter gap distance and quicker steering during lane changes.

You can now use the right scroll wheel to adjust your cruise-control speed. (Before that was handled by buttons.) And there’s an update to the in-vehicle visualization of the surrounding environment, which Rivian calls “Autonomy View.” 

“With this update, the Autonomy View now zooms out to show more of the area behind your vehicle, so you have more context for maneuvers such as lane changes and turns,” Rivian says.

Kick Turn

Quad-motor R1 vehicles now get two interesting new features. Kick turn sweeps out the rear end to help with sharp turns when off-roading. RAD Tuner gives drivers an interface to customize things like acceleration, stability and torque balance. Mack Hogan already tried these features out when he sampled the upgraded quad-motor Rivians this summer. 

A New Phone-Based Key

The new Rivian Digital Key replaces the Bluetooth-based phone key owners have been able to use for years. Now owners of Gen 2 R1 vehicles can add a Rivian key to the wallet on compatible Apple, Google and Samsung phones, allowing them to access and driver their vehicles via Ultra-Wideband (for passive entry) or Near-Field Communication (for tapping).

Rivian’s new Digital Key can be added to a smart watch.

Photo by: Rivian

Rivian says this should make accessing its cars more seamless than before. Plus, owners can share around up to eight digital keys with friends or family members, which does seem genuinely helpful. 

One other perk: Drivers can lock and unlock their cars using a smart watch—when they’re out surfing, or what have you—which does feel very Rivian indeed. 

If you experience any of these features and have thoughts, drop us a line in the comments, or contact me at Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com