According to reports, Mind Robotics, the industrial AI and robotics company spun off by Rivian last year, has appointed Doug Field as President overseeing product, engineering, and operations, while Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe will remain involved in company affairs. Mind Robotics is developing a full-stack hardware and software solution tailored for industrial manufacturing, with robots running foundational models, aiming to scale automation across industrial and manufacturing tasks.

The company has secured over $1 billion in support from investors including Accel and Andreessen Horowitz, as well as Volkswagen and Salesforce’s investment arm, leveraging Rivian’s high-volume manufacturing facilities as both training and deployment environments; Rivian is also its first customer. Unlike humanoid robots developed by companies such as Tesla, Scaringe stated that Mind Robotics will not attempt to replicate the full biomechanics of humans. Field previously led Ford’s electric vehicle and technology strategy, headed Apple’s Project Titan, and oversaw Model 3 development at Tesla.