Rivian began sending invitations on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026 for its new Autonomy Early Access Program, an invite-only test group that will be the first to get Point to Point driving, according to a new Rivian support page. Point to Point is targeted for December for selected U.S. owners of Gen 2 R1 and R2 vehicles with a paid Autonomy+ subscription, starting in California and Florida. Rivian says the feature expands broadly to Autonomy+ subscribers in 2027.

Point to Point plugs Rivian's Universal Hands-Free system into navigation, so the vehicle follows turn-by-turn directions through "supervised turns, highway transitions, and city streets," Rivian says. The driver still supervises the whole time.

Who can get in

  • Paid Autonomy+ only: free trials don't count. Autonomy+ costs $2,500 one-time or $49.99 a month, Electrek reports.
  • Selection: invitations go to owners with "high Autonomy feature usage, and a clean recent safety record," balanced by region and vehicle model. Owners who aren't picked get no rejection email and don't need to reapply.
  • Excluded: Gen 1 R1 vehicles and owners in Canada.
  • Ongoing checks: safety and participation are re-verified every 30 days, and Rivian can revoke membership at any time.

What testers agree to

Participants must use the preview features weekly, log issues when it's safe, fill out a monthly survey and be available for interviews or focus groups. They also have to turn on data collection, including location and Camera Data Sharing, and sign a Participation Agreement with a non-disclosure clause covering the program, according to Electrek. Rivian says participants are not paid.

A slipping timeline

On Rivian's Q2 earnings call in July, CEO RJ Scaringe called the first version "Level 2++" (hands off, eyes on) and said hands-off, eyes-off driving comes in 2027 and Level 4 in 2028, Electrek reports. In January 2025 he had said an eyes-free system would launch in 2026. Rivian's two support pages also differ slightly: one says December, the other "late 2026." Earlier today Scaringe also said Rivian cars will host third-party AI agents, with more due at its December AI & Autonomy Day.

What it means for Tesla

Electrek points out that Rivian is following Tesla's early playbook: Tesla's first FSD Beta testers also signed NDAs, and Tesla later used its Safety Score to decide which paying owners got access before opening the beta to nearly everyone who bought the package. The difference is timing: Rivian's address-to-address feature reaches a small invited group in December, while Tesla owners are already on FSD v14 builds (see our look at FSD v14.3 Lite first drives). Rivian also just hired Tesla's former Cybercab assembly lead, Jody Kerns, for R2.