Yea, the 3rd quarter results gave Rivian shares a boost yesterday:   Rivian Automotive Inc. (RIVN) shares are trading higher Friday after the EV maker beat third-quarter expectations and raised its delivery outlook. The stock also drew support from Rivian's growing software and autonomy business, helping it outperform a weaker broader market.   Yorkville Ives analyst Dan Ives maintained an Outperform rating and $20 price forecast, calling the results the "beat-and-raise quarter the R2 story needed." "Rivian's two engines are now coming into sharper focus: R2 is becoming the volume platform, and the software and autonomy stack is creating value beyond the vehicle," Ives said.       I don't think that's happenin' in the next 10-15 years. Remember a few months ago when VW Group's stake in Rivian increased to about 16% (for comparison, Amazon and Uber combined hold 12%) and conspiracy theories about VW buyin' out Rivian made their rounds? The founder of RivianTrackr explained the actual situation:   What most people freaking out about this miss is what it says about Volkswagen. VW is one of the biggest carmakers in the world, and it’s spent years (and a truly wild amount of money) trying to build its own EV software through its Cariad division. It did not go well. Cariad got downgraded to just coordinating stuff, and deadlines kept slipping. The whole point of this Rivian partnership is that VW finally admitted it couldn’t pull this off on its own. So, the company cutting these billion-dollar checks? It’s not flexing its muscles. It’s admitting it needs what Rivian’s already built.   That’s important for all the takeover talk, because the way VW got this stake doesn’t look anything like a company scheming for control.   And honestly, VW isn’t even in a position to buy anyone right now. Its finances are a mess, and it’s burning through cash as it tries to switch to electric. Plus, it owns Scout Motors, which will be going head-to-head with Rivian in the US. A company with that much on its plate isn’t about to buy out the same partner it desperately needs for software.   Of course, that doesn’t mean things can’t change. VW has already spent about $3.3 billion of the $5.8 billion, and if it puts in the remaining $2.5 billion, its stake could exceed 20% by 2027. So, yeah, having someone own more than a fifth of your company is definitely something to watch. But just because the number’s going up doesn’t mean it’s a takeover. Right now, this looks a lot more like a giant leaning on Rivian than one getting ready to swallow it. Whether that holds true probably depends on whether VW actually gets this software into its cars. We’re still a long way from knowing how that’ll turn out.

The hands-free driving aspect of BlueCruise won't activate above 81 mph, but ACC, lane centering, and lane change assist still work. At least they did on our '25 MME GT.

So BluesCruise doesn't work past 80?  Good to know, wouldn't work for me...

I've got a personal example as well.  Last company I worked at, part of my job was supporting a 3rd party document management system.  I spent a lot of time fixing things that clerks had messed up, or using backend workarounds in the system to update mistakes.  I could do it but it was a waste of my skills since I've been a web developer my entire career (now 28 years), and it was incredibly boring for my ADHD brain.  I had a lot of ideas to help the clerks out, automate their job, make things easier, eliminate mistakes (which, in the nuclear industry, it preached on constantly) and take a load off me and the rest of our staff (4 people plus our manager).  I proposed some of these to our manager and the response was "fordmantpw, the clerks are the lowest paid positions here.  We aren't going to devote our time to making their jobs easier."  OK, if you want to be stuck in that corporate rut, fine.  Unlike akirby, I took no for an answer, and left to run my own business.  Now, they are still stuck in the rut, wasting money fixing things, and hiring more clerks since they were so overloaded.  Some corporate philosophies just can't be changed.   So, now I run my own business and can use my skills to their fullest!  

I could see a legacy automaker buying Rivian at some point.

It's not that easy in a corporation.  Career Ford employees have been taught this is how you do things for decades and the organization and processes are built around that.  Even if you know what to do getting it through the chain of command can be impossible - especially when upper mgt is risk averse.  The best way around it is what Farley did - remove all those obstacles and legacy training.   I have a personal example.  Our org was engineering and deploying cloud hardware to run our cell network and it was time to start removing the old equipment.  There wasn't a comprehensive process to do that so I took it on myself to create one soup to nuts and as far as I know they're still using it today.  There was a group that managed old hardware.  Most of it was scrapped but some was sold to 3rd parties and the proceeds went back in the general fund.  Meanwhile we still had to pay to buy and install it and pay to remove it.  I asked why we can't sell it ourselves and keep the proceeds in our org to offset removal costs and my boss and everyone else said it wasn't allowed.  So I went directly to finance and supplier mgt and asked why can't we do this and not surprisingly was told it was already being done for some projects.  So I worked with supplier mgt to find vendors to buy the equipment and create or update contracts and worked with finance on how to process the payments.  Took 6-8 months to get it going but the first year we cleared over a million dollars which paid for all the removals and then some.  2nd and 3rd years were less because the equipment market value was dropping but still net positive.   All because I wouldn't take no for an answer.   Not many people in a corporation would have done that.  Most are either scared to rock the boat or don't know how to overcome the system.  And sometimes management just says no.  So I don't blame engineering I blame the processes that don't bring in new thinkers and make it hard to make innovative changes.  And Farley just bypassed all of that with skunkworks.

The 2026 Mustang Dark Horse SC Order Guide has been added to the Dealer Order Guides section. Thanks @abc26

2026 Mustang Dark Horse SC Order Guide View File 2026 Mustang Dark Horse SC Order Guide Submitter ice-capades Submitted 10/31/2026 Category Mustang  

It’s also hard when brands like BYD actually design and make batteries and the vehicles are just one of several ways to sell those batteries. That completely flips the manufacturing and sales paradigm. Also, they are roughly a full generation ahead of anything planned by North American based brands.

There were accusations that Japan Inc was doing similar to that but in a more subtle way, currency manipulation?   In any regard, it’s been interesting watching the Chinese government run the equivalent of of BEV Hunger Games where the fittest survive….thee s so much government control in China, non-domestic brands are withering away.