Garrett Blizzard

@aakashgupta Waymo also operates all over Austin, TX ➕

Rivian lost $13.8 billion in three years. Today they announced a robotaxi. The partner rotation is the business model at this point. Amazon: $1.3B equity plus 100K van order. VW: $5.8B joint venture. US DOE: $6.6B loan. Uber: $1.25B robotaxi deal. Every 12 to 18 months, a new institution writes a check large enough to fund the next chapter. The $1.25B headline is misleading. Uber commits $300 million now. The remaining $950 million is gated behind “autonomous milestones” by unspecified dates through 2031. That’s not a conviction bet on Rivian’s autonomy. That’s a call option priced at $300 million with five years of expiry. Look at Uber’s last 18 months. Waymo rides on the platform. Zoox in Las Vegas this year, LA in 2027. 20,000 Lucid vehicles with Nuro’s autonomy stack. Now Rivian. Every autonomy architecture covered. Camera-only, lidar-first, purpose-built pods, OEM conversions. Uber is building a portfolio of bets so that they win regardless of which stack reaches scale first. Rivian thinks they signed a partnership. Uber signed a hedge. The R2 that this entire deal depends on launches this spring at $57,990. The $45,000 version? Late 2027. The version with lidar and the Gen 3 chip that actually enables robotaxi-grade perception? Late 2026 at the earliest. The robotaxi fleet in San Francisco and Miami? 2028. The Georgia factory for scale production? Still under construction. Waymo is running fully driverless rides across San Francisco, Phoenix, and LA right now. No milestones to hit. No factory to build. No vehicle to finish designing. Rivian needs the product, the factory, the software, and the autonomous driving system to all work simultaneously three years from now. Uber’s smartest move in the last decade was selling its own self-driving unit for a $4 billion loss. Its second smartest is buying call options on everyone else’s.

@MichaelDell What is the AZ ERA?

Jensen Huang is loving the new Dell Pro Max with GB300 at NVIDIA GTC.💙 They asked me to sign it, but I already did 😉

@NoahRevoy I would have loved this type of school as a kid.

If I were to start a private school, it would be a boys-only institution. All teachers would be male. Most would come from military backgrounds, with preference given to those with special forces experience. The structure would prioritize physical and practical development. Each morning would begin with physical training. Boxing. Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Obstacle courses. Firearms training. There would also be a strong emphasis on building. Shop classes. Hands-on work. The ability to construct something real. Even for someone who becomes an IT engineer, knowing how to build a chair matters. Real-world construction develops thinking. It trains problem-solving in a way abstract learning does not. Academic instruction would be concentrated. No more than three hours per day at a desk. That is sufficient to meet curriculum requirements and maintain academic competence. The rest of the day would be spent developing strength, discipline, and practical skill.

DUNE PART THREE

In 5 years when you purchase a vehicle from a legacy OEM, you will be able to choose from a range of autonomous drivers when you spec your order.

@wholemars For purchasing a vehicle, these are important details. As a Robotaxi product, not so much.

A lot of people are focused on when Tesla will catch up to Waymo, which is fair given that Waymo has thousands of driverless cars and Tesla only has a handful. But not enough people ask “When will Waymo catch up to Tesla?” 1. When will Waymo be able to take me on a coast to coast drive? 2. When will I be able to buy a Waymo? 3. When will Waymo cross 8 million cars that can run their software? 4. When will Waymo be able to work with no geofencing restrictions? My contrarian take is that it’s a lot easier for Tesla to catch Waymo than for Waymo to catch up to Tesla.

@wholemars @MeaganScaringe Oh wow, I did not know this. Sad for the boys…. The appearance of a happy nuclear family was something I valued about RJ and Rivian.

Missed this story from last year. RJ Scaringe and his wife got divorced in July 2025 following 2 years of divorce proceedings, and as a result his ex-wife @MeaganScaringe now has 3.6% voting control over Rivian

@BigImpactHumans Very insightful, thanks

@garrettblizzard Everything

I tried out a Rivian 🤫 It was nice, but I much prefer Tesla.

@Mr_Husky1 This is dumb. Make him clean it up instead.

Soft parenting is the reason why kids are so disrespectful and weak nowadays. We’re raising a generation of brats because parents are too scared to give a real lesson. My older son made a mess of my tools and spilled paint everywhere so I made him face the wall for 10 minutes. My wife started an argument with me and said I should be soft with him because he’s a child. We’re not doing them any favors by being soft because they’ll never learn how to follow a simple rule. It’s better to face a wall for a few minutes than to get hit with a belt like I used to. If you just let kids do whatever they want, they grow up to be spoiled brats who expect everything for free. I want my son to listen to me and know there are consequences in this house. You’re failing your children if you think being their friend is more important than being their parent. Good luck dealing with your kids when they’re older and still have no respect for your home.

@wholemars What does that mean? Gross loss of $10k vs net loss of $85k?

Rivian posted a gross loss of $10,216 per vehicle delivered in 2025, and a net loss of $85,753 per vehicle. Can they cut $30,000 of cost out with the R2 platform? If they work hard they might have a shot at pulling it off but they will need to show a lot more discipline in their fixed costs as well. So far I'm not seeing any signs of discipline. Instead, they're investing like crazy. That works as long as they're able to raise more capital. RJ is going to need to be sleeping at the factory in Illinois and telling employees across the company to tighten their belts if they want to get through this without becoming a subsidiary of Volkswagen.

@240Vdaddy @Rivian I really like the white but black was very sleek. I’m biased towards those colors in general for vehicles. But they only had white, black, and the wrapped ones at the off-road area. Didn’t get to see the other colors in person.

@garrettblizzard @Rivian Awesome! What was your favorite color?!

A little late to this party, but very cool to see the @Rivian R2 in action at SXSW in downtown Austin.

@JoshWest247 @Rivian Oh I didn’t notice that. That’s the one you posted the other day that’s all set up for camping?

@garrettblizzard @Rivian Did you see the cool bed in the back of the black one? 🛌

@DavidMoss @grok can you transcribe the audio from this video clip?

Jeff Hammoud, Chief Design Officer - Rivian On why they are designing cars not like the Tesla Model Y

How do I tell my X algo that idgaf about the Oscars?

@DavidMoss Would also be the difference between RWD and AWD

Should I get the 60k CT or a Rivian R2 with LiDAR ?

Spun up a quick Claude web app for tracking body weight and fat percentage. Feel free to download and copy. claude.ai/public/artifac…

@DevinOlsenn FSD in a parking lot gave me a nasty curb rash. There was a person putting away groceries that seemed to redirect the MY into the curb.

FSD does 97% of my driving, well over 70,000km since I’ve owned the vehicle. You know how many times FSD has curbed my wheels? Zero I wasn’t paying attention yesterday when I took over driving for a quick second and heard a horrible noise as I ran the tire into a curb. I’m 100% positive FSD would have avoided it, but instead the dumb human behind the wheel (me) ruined my rims 😭

@mikepat711 If you have kids your perspective might change. It’s a pretty tight fit in the back for little ones and not the best ride. Makes them car sick.

The things about the R2 that are cool are things that I’d utilize maybe 0.5-1% of the time. The other 99-99.5% of the time, I’d be sacrificing efficiency and general practicality for novelty like cool body style, ground clearance, tires, greater ability to off-road, etc... The thing that makes the Y so attractive is that it is a maximally useful, minimal cost EV. I’ve been driving the Y for a little over 2 years, and still every day I get excited to use it, because it is flawlessly useful for 99% of things I’d use a vehicle for. I think this is true for most people, and why it sells so well. Every inch of the vehicle is designed to be as useful as possible. I go on work road trips often, and the supercharger network with software integration is amazing. You get this with other EVs, but it isn’t as seamless. When I drive in densely populated areas, I have a nimble little SUV that is super easy to maneuver through tight spaces. I go on cycling road trips a lot to rural areas. My bike rack fits in my frunk and attaches to my 2” tow hitch on the back. I’ve driven through muddy fields and deep into rugged environments with my Y. It is a workhorse for adventure. Yeah, not going to be riding up the side of boulders and dirt mounds or whatever, but I’ve never once in my life found myself having to do that, or seeking that sort of thing out. For those people, R2 is cooler. For everyone else, this capability isn’t useful. When I go on vacation, the Model Y has larger interior storage space than competitors like RAV4 and CX5. Gives me endless space to pack what I need for me and my girlfriend. I’ve transported entire trade show booths in my Y and have shocked colleagues by how much stuff fits in it. The exterior is deceiving. The Y provides more than enough space for most people. The aero design of the Y makes it more efficient and generally lower cost than something like a R2 (more range per kWh, lower sticker price). The 44.9k model Y has over 350 miles of range and you can buy it today. The R2 doesn’t even have an offering this attractive on its roadmap at all. The Y also offers a 39k, 320 mile range trim today. Even further out of view for competitors. The coolest and most useful part (by far) of the Y is Tesla Self-Driving, and what sets it apart from every single vehicle in every market. This isn’t even something to compare to something like the R2, because it stands alone. I still think the Y is a more sensible vehicle for most people without this tech, but FSD basically makes it a different product entirely. Even if the R2 matched or beat Y on practicality, I’d never be able to get one for myself until it has a FSD equivalent. Can’t go back to flip phone driving. R2 looks awesome, and for a certain demographic it is a more attractive buy. But the Y is still the objectively better vehicle for most. And it is available right now for less money.