Former Ford EV chief Doug Field appointed president of Rivian spin-off Mind Robotics

At Disrupt 2026, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe introduced Doug Field as the new president of Mind Robotics, the industrial AI and robotics spin-off created last year. Field, who departed Ford in April after a five-year stint shaping its EV strategy, previously led Apple’s Project Titan and served as senior vice president of engineering at Tesla, overseeing the Model 3 rollout. Mind Robotics, funded with over $1 billion from firms including Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Eclipse, Kleiner Perkins, and the venture arms of Volkswagen and Salesforce, is building a full-stack manufacturing platform that runs purpose-built robots on foundation models.

Unlike humanoid designs pursued by other firms, its robots will not mimic human biomechanics. Rivian will provide a high-volume manufacturing environment for model training and will be the startup’s first client. The move follows Rivian’s earlier spin-off, Also, a micromobility venture led day-to-day by former Specialized chief product officer Chris Yu, with Rivian holding roughly a third of each company as of June 30 2026.