Rivian CEO takes different approach than Elon Musk for humanoid robots

PARK CITY, Utah — Rivian Automotive CEO RJ Scaringe envisions a day in the not-so-distant future when the electric vehicle maker’s manufacturing employees will have a new type of colleague: humanoid robots.

“There’s going to be thousands of people that are collaborating alongside these robots. They’re going to be taking pictures, ‘Hey, check this out! My co-worker’s name is Phil, and he’s a robot,'” Scaringe said during a media event for the launch of the Rivian R2 EV.

The 43-year-old automotive enthusiast and tech entrepreneur started a robotics company last year called Mind Robotics. The company has raised more than $1 billion, according to Scaringe.

Humanoid robots are designed to be shaped and move like people. Artificial intelligence algorithms power their abilities along with complex hardware like semiconductors. Proponents say they could be used in various settings, from factories to hospitality and even in the home, while others have raised concerns about the devices replacing human jobs.

Scaringe said the company expects to reveal its first product in less than a year, with Rivian as a large minority shareholder and launch customer. Mind currently has roughly 20 open positions ranging from software and hardware engineers to data architects, according to its website.

Scaringe, who is executive chair and acting CEO of Mind, told CNBC that the plan is to keep the robotics company separate from Rivian, as opposed to the automaker partially shifting to make humanoid robots, like Tesla CEO Elon Musk is doing with his company.

“We have a deep relationship, and that was actually how we structured it,” Scaringe said during an interview. “A big part of structuring the business was to allow me to be able to spend time on both.”

The robotics strategy adds to a narrative of Scaringe doing things differently than Musk, despite obvious similarities in their companies. There have been enough comparisons that Rivian has even been called the “anti-Tesla” and Scaringe has been referred to as the “anti-Elon.”

“I’d say there’s a lot of alignment there, and I think that’s because, obviously, I’m biased, but I think they’re right … that autonomy is a super important technology,” Scaringe said about Tesla and Rivian. “But in terms of the products, they, in many ways, couldn’t be more different.”

So far Rivian and Mind are assisting each other, though, much like Musk’s companies have also done during developmental phases. That includes Musk’s xAI company merging with SpaceX before the company’s record-setting initial public offering on Friday as well as SpaceX purchasing vehicles from Tesla.

Scaringe said Rivian will be a “huge beneficiary” of Mind, which is using data from Rivian for training its AI models. Along with Rivian’s equity stake, the automaker will be Mind’s first customer for the robots.

“We realized it was such a big opportunity that deserved to be its own company,” said Scaringe. He said he believes there is a multitrillion-dollar total addressable market for industrial labor.

Scaringe was visibly excited when speaking with media about the potential for AI and humanoid robotics, calling it “one of the most exciting times, perhaps in human history.”

“One hundred years from now, they’re going to be inheriting the work that we do over our lifetimes, and so I just think we’re so lucky that we get to be alive at the birth of AI,” Scaringe said.

Despite the optimism for humanoid robots, Scaringe said he expects the devices to work alongside humans rather than replace them completely for the foreseeable future, saying it takes a “long time” for vehicle assembly plants to become so-called “dark factories” which can be almost entirely run by robots.

“What I see happening is the simplest tasks will be taken on by robots. The more complex tasks that require higher levels of reasoning or more complex, more tactile levels of dexterity [will be done by humans],” he said.

Scaringe said manufacturers are dealing with an “extreme lack of labor,” from other automakers. Rivian currently has more than 30 open manufacturing and engineering jobs, according to the company’s website.

The need for such workers, as well as the rapid development of AI, Scaringe believes, will mean human employees will be working alongside a robot named “Phil” far sooner than they may expect.

“The rate at which this is moving is far faster than I’d say — like an order of magnitude faster — than the average person in society understands,” he said. “That’s going to be a particularly big challenge in the short-term to just have the average person … realize how fast the models are learning and how capable they are at doing almost everything.”

— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.