Rivian buys world model startup to accelerate self-driving ambitions

Electric vehicle maker Rivian has acquired Third Dimension, a United Kingdom startup that uses artificial intelligence to convert images and video into lifelike 3D environments. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The 15-person team from Third Dimension will join Rivian's autonomy and AI unit led by James Philbin, expanding Rivian’s AI hub in London.

Founded in 2024 by Tolga Kart and Piotr Sokolski, the startup previously raised $7 million in seed funding. Rivian plans to use the technology to accelerate the development of its advanced driver assistance features and self-driving systems for planned robotaxis for Uber. Autonomous vehicle developers rely on simulation to train and validate self-driving systems.

Traditional simulators use video game engines and synthetic data, requiring large data volumes to close the quality gap with the physical world. Third Dimension's artificial intelligence matches the physical world, creating virtual environments that Rivian can combine with driving data collected from its customer fleets. Rivian gathers more than 400,000 driving sequences daily from customer vehicles with enabled camera sharing.

Philbin stated that the new technology will allow Rivian to simulate complex driving conditions without waiting for rare real-world edge cases to happen.