Case Study: Rivian Achieves Faster, More Sustainable Vehicle Design with Varjo and Autodesk

How Rivian Achieved a Faster Design Process with VR and Autodesk

Rivian, the U.S.-based electric vehicle manufacturer, wanted to speed up vehicle design while reducing travel, emissions, and the heavy use of physical materials in traditional clay-model workflows. To support dispersed engineering and design teams, Rivian turned to Varjo and Autodesk, using the Varjo XR-4 with Autodesk VRED for remote, collaborative design and visualization.

With Varjo and Autodesk, Rivian moved much of its review process into VR and mixed reality, enabling lifelike digital models, faster feedback, and earlier issue detection without relying on physical mockups. The impact was significant: design reviews that once took about a week could be done in about an hour, iteration cycles increased by 2-3x, and Rivian reported around $1 million in savings per vehicle program from reduced materials and mockups, alongside a more sustainable design process.

Rivian

Trevor Greene

Lead Visualization Design