Rivian Acquires 15-Person UK Unit To Rebuild Streets For AI Testing
The startup will convert over 400,000 daily driving clips from Rivian's fleet into 3D simulation environments to test self-driving software.
By Harper Foster ·
Rivian's vehicle fleet transmits more than 400,000 driving sequences to company servers every day. The electric vehicle maker acquired Third Dimension, a 15-person UK startup, to transform that raw footage into 3D test environments for its self-driving system. TechCrunch first reported the transaction. Rivian did not disclose the purchase price.
Third Dimension was founded in 2024 by Tolga Kart and Piotr Sokólski. Kart spent more than two years working on Autopilot simulation at Tesla. He previously served as a senior director on Call of Duty at Activision for five years and later led engineering at Parallel Domain. Sokólski spent four years at Wayve building photorealistic neural simulators for autonomous vehicles. The company raised a $7 million seed round led by Felicis in October 2024. At that time, it identified game studios, film productions, the US military, and autonomous vehicle companies as potential clients.
The entire Third Dimension team is joining Rivian's autonomy and AI group. James Philbin leads that division. The acquisition expands Rivian's physical presence in London, where most of the new hires are based. Philbin told TechCrunch that simulation is central to training and validating the company's autonomous driving systems. He described the new team's technology as a method to turn real-world data into detailed 3D environments.
The process relies on camera data shared by owners of the R1S, R1T, R2, and commercial vans. Most of the daily footage shows uneventful driving conditions. Autonomous systems face their greatest challenges during rare events, such as a mattress in the fast lane or a child running between parked cars. Engineers can now recreate these specific scenes in 3D and alter variables to test system responses without waiting for the events to occur naturally.
Rivian is not the only company using this approach. Waymo unveiled its Waymo World Model in February, built on Google DeepMind's Genie 3 to generate unseen scenarios. Tesla has also demonstrated a neural world simulator for its Full Self-Driving software.
The acquisition occurs as Rivian faces tight deadlines for its robotaxi deployment. In March, Uber agreed to invest up to $1.25 billion in Rivian to deploy R2 robotaxis. Only $300 million is paid upfront. The remaining funds are tied to autonomy milestones, including the deployment of 10,000 driverless R2 vehicles in San Francisco and Miami by 2028.
Consumer timelines have shifted recently. Rivian's point-to-point driving feature will reach a small group of invited Autonomy+ owners later this year. Those testers must sign a nondisclosure agreement. CEO RJ Scaringe promised eyes-off driving in 2026 in January 2025. That target is now set for 2027. Level 4 capability is planned for 2028 on Gen 3 hardware.
The deal brings in staff with direct experience in the specific technology being deployed. The team's prior work at Tesla and Wayve provides a foundation for the new simulation efforts. This addition aims to accelerate the development of Rivian's autonomous driving stack.
