Doug Field Takes Helm at Rivian Spinoff Mind Robotics

The appointment, announced Tuesday at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, marks a significant shift for the startup as it moves to scale operations. While Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe retains an advisory role, Field will oversee product, engineering, and daily operations. The company has already secured over $1 billion in funding from major backers, including Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, and venture arms from Volkswagen and Salesforce.

Unlike Tesla’s humanoid approach, Mind Robotics is focusing on purpose-built machines designed for industrial tasks. The startup leverages Rivian’s own manufacturing facilities as a training ground, using the automaker as its primary customer. This hands-on environment allows the team to deploy and refine foundation models in a high-volume setting from the outset.

Field’s move follows his departure from Ford in April after a five-year tenure managing the company’s EV technology strategies. His resume includes high-stakes engineering roles at Tesla and Apple’s Project Titan. Mind Robotics operates as a standalone entity, though Rivian maintains a minority stake of approximately one-third in the company, consistent with the structure of Scaringe’s other spinoff, the micromobility firm Also.