Doug Field, a prominent figure in the electric vehicle (EV) sector, has been appointed as the president of Mind Robotics, an industrial AI and robotics venture that spun out of Rivian last year. This announcement was made during the Disrupt 2026 event, signaling that Mind Robotics is poised to scale its operations just one year after its inception.
Leadership Transition
RJ Scaringe, CEO of Rivian, will remain involved with Mind Robotics, but Field will oversee the day-to-day operations, including product development, engineering, and operations. Mind Robotics has already secured over $1 billion in funding from notable investors such as Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Eclipse, Kleiner Perkins, and the venture arms of Volkswagen and Salesforce.
Vision and Goals
The startup aims to create a full stack for industrial manufacturing, focusing on purpose-built robots that utilize foundation models to automate industrial tasks at scale. Unlike humanoid robots being developed by other companies, Scaringe emphasized that Mind Robotics will not attempt to replicate human biomechanics.
