Mind Robotics, the industrial AI and robotics company founded by Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, named Doug Field as president on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. Field will oversee product, engineering and operations while Scaringe remains founder and chair, according to the company's Business Wire announcement and reporting from The Verge and TechCrunch.
Who Doug Field is
Field was senior vice president of engineering at Tesla, where he oversaw development of the Model 3 through what Tesla called production hell. He later led Apple's Special Projects Group (the Project Titan EV effort) and Mac hardware engineering, then served as Ford's chief EV, digital and design officer until he left in April 2026 amid a leadership reorganization, TechCrunch and The Verge report. He was also employee No. 1 at Segway earlier in his career, TechCrunch notes.
Scaringe said on the TechCrunch Disrupt stage that he wanted someone like Field to help run Mind, called him for a recommendation, and ended up hiring him. "Doug is a remarkable leader with a track record of delivering new technologies in successful products," Scaringe said in the company release. Field said Mind has "a unique advantage: the ability to deploy and learn inside a real, high-volume factory from day one."
What Mind Robotics is building
Mind says it is building "universally capable robots" with foundation models and hardware aimed at dexterity and physical reasoning for complex manufacturing. Rivian is a key customer and launch partner, giving Mind a live factory environment for training and deployment — starting with Rivian's Normal, Illinois plant as the R2 ramps, Automotive World reports. The Verge notes Rivian owns equity in Mind (about a third, per Automotive World) and will be the first customer, while Scaringe has said he wants to keep the companies separate rather than fold robotics into the automaker the way Tesla has with Optimus.
Automotive World reports Mind has raised more than $1 billion without showing a public product: a $115 million seed led by Eclipse, a $500 million Series A co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz in March, and a $400 million round led by Kleiner Perkins in May, with a reported valuation around $3.4 billion.
What it means for Tesla
Field is one of the best-known alumni of Tesla's Model 3 program, now helping a Rivian-tied rival scale factory robots. That puts Mind on a parallel track to Tesla's Optimus push into industrial work, but with a different structure: outside capital, a separate company, and Rivian's line as the first proving ground. Tesla owners watching Optimus and factory automation should treat Field's hire as a signal that competing industrial robot stacks are moving from fundraising into deployment. Follow Tesla's side on our Optimus tracker.