Doug Field takes over as president of Rivian spinoff Mind Robotics, leading engineering and operations for industrial AI robotics hardware and foundation models.
The news was announced at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 conference in San Francisco. Field will take over the day-to-day operations, technology and products of the company, while Rivian CEO Raj Scarridge will continue to be involved in the venture.
Mind Robotics has raised more than $1 billion in funding from venture capital firms and companies including Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Eclipse, Kleiner Perkins, Volkswagen and Salesforce. The company develops robots for industrial use and factories, using advanced artificial intelligence models.
Unlike humanoid robots developed by other companies, such as Tesla, Mind Robotics' approach does not aim to copy human movements. Rivian is the company's first customer, offering its factories for training and testing the robots in real-world production conditions.
Doug Field has previously worked at Ford, Apple on a self-driving car project, and Tesla, where he oversaw the production of the Model 3.
Mind Robotics is the second company created by Rivian, following a light mobility company called Also. According to data through the end of June 2026, Rivian owned about a third of each new company.
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