- The Rivian Adventure Department has made its official debut.
- It’s a skunkworks team that pushes boundaries to improve vehicles.
- Has already paved the way for the RAD Tuner and new drive modes.
Rivian has used the FAT Ice Race in Montana to introduce the Rivian Adventure Department, or RAD for short. It’s being billed as a skunkworks team of designers, engineers, and enthusiasts “who spend their days and nights exploring the limits of what a Rivian can do.”
The company said a lot without saying much of anything, but the team is focused on unlocking the next level of capability and performance. They aren’t limited to cubicles either as they’ve “learned there’s no substitute for real-world experience.”
More: Rivian Aiming To Break Its Own Pikes Peak Record With R1T
This has already seen the company enter and win the 2023 Rebelle Rally as well as set records for a production electric truck at Pikes Peak in 2023 and 2024. Learnings from these experiences is then fed back into road-going models.
While win on Sunday and sell on Monday is hardly a new idea, Rivian said their off-road adventures directly resulted in the Desert Rally drive mode as well as the RAD Tuner. The latter debuted on the second-generation R1 Quad lineup and enables owners to customize their driving experience.
While a number of automakers offer a personalization setting, most only let you adjust a few things. Rivian, on the other hand, allows drivers to tweak acceleration and regeneration as well as damping, ride height, brake assist, steering, wheel slip, and torque bias – among other things. In effect, it enables you to fine-tune the vehicle’s characteristics exactly to your liking and the situation at hand.
Will RAD Become Rivian’s AMG?
The Rivian Adventure Department has been around for awhile, but now it’s out in the open. As Chief Design Officer Jeff Hammoud explained, “RAD represents the living, breathing expression of the passion that defines Rivian. That impulse to explore, to push limits, and to embrace the adventure is not confined to one team—it is the very DNA of our entire company, from the designers and engineers to our community of owners.”
The big question is what happens next. Does RAD remain a relatively low-key team focused on improving existing products or do they transform into Rivian’s version of BMW M, Cadillac V, and Mercedes AMG? Only time will tell, but it feels like little more than marketing at this point.
