Third Dimension

Autonomous Vehicles · AI Simulation · Automotive

Acquisition

Rivian acquires UK AI startup Third Dimension for self-driving

The 15-person team trades serving multiple industries for a single, massive problem: training robotaxis on simulated worlds that mirror reality.

• Rivian has acquired Third Dimension, a 15-person UK startup that uses AI to convert images and video into realistic 3D worlds; deal terms were not disclosed.
• Founded in 2024 by CEO Tolga Kart and Piotr Sokolski, Third Dimension originally built its tech to speed up video game development before pivoting toward defense and autonomous vehicle uses.
• The startup had raised $7 million in seed funding from Abstract Ventures, MVP, Soma Capital and Solari Capital before being acquired.
• The team will join Rivian's autonomy and AI group led by James Philbin, and the acquisition helps Rivian expand its AI hub in London.
• Rivian already ingests more than 400,000 driving data sequences per day from R1T, R1S, R2 and delivery vans with external camera sharing enabled.
• Traditional driving simulators are built on game engines with synthetic data, leaving a persistent gap with real-world road behavior that developers close by feeding in ever more data.
• The tech is aimed at both consumer driver-assistance features and the self-driving system for the Uber-bound robotaxis Rivian plans to deploy.
• Acquiring simulation talent lets Rivian rehearse rare, dangerous driving scenarios virtually rather than waiting for them to occur on real roads, a key bottleneck for safely scaling autonomy.