- RAD stands for Rivian Adventure Department.
- The team consists of Rivian designers, engineers and adventure enthusiasts.
- RAD is the skunkworks division tasked with pushing the limits of Rivian vehicles’ capabilities.
Since its launch in 2009, Rivian has aggressively put its production and prototype vehicles through tough challenges. The department responsible for this effort eventually had a name: Rivan Adventure Department, or RAD.
The RAD team consists of designers, engineers and real adventure enthusiasts. Rivian views RAD as a public-facing skunk department tasked with pushing its vehicles to the limits of their capabilities, and beyond.
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Source: Rivian
The spirit of this venture began six years ago, when Rivian brought a pair of R1T prototypes to South America. Since then, Rivian vehicles have competed in (and won) events like the Rebelle Rally and the Pikes Peak Hill Climb.
RAD’s most recent assignment took place in Big Sky, Montana. Tim attended the FAT Ice Race on his new R1S quad bike. It’s easy to spot the RAD Rivian, as it now sports a pretty sweet livery, along with the RAD logo on the doors.
Photo by: Rivian
The name is quite good and a bit cheesy. Regardless, it’s great to see Rivian leveraging the performance capabilities of its vehicles in a variety of different ways. And engineers can use any insights gained from the RAD team to make their vehicles even better.
Motor Pickup1: Every automaker needs a team that focuses on the fun side of cars. Whether it’s motorsport, adventure or a unique lifestyle experience, automakers need to lean into the things that make them attractive to their customer base.
Rivian makes capable and fun electric vehicles, and we’re looking forward to more examples wearing RAD livery. Now, if the engineering team understood that vehicles that have Apple CarPlay would be cool too.
